Our Postgraduate Research Students are taking their work to national and international audiences thanks to the Department’s dedicated conference funding support.
This year, students have been funded or part-funded to attend a wide range of prestigious conferences across the UK, Europe, Asia, and North America.
The initiative supports students presenting at events including:
UK-based conferences
European conferences
Further afield
- AAG Annual Meeting, Detroit, USA
- AGU Conference, Washington, USA
- Global Conference of Economic Geography, Massachusetts, USA
- Conference for Advancing the Participatory Sciences, Portland, USA
- International Conference on Palaeoceanography, Bengaluru, India
- China Academic Conference on Ecotourism and Environmental Protection, Chengdu
- Urban Mediations Conference, Hong Kong
"It’s rare that a department offers travel support for PhD students to showcase their research and serve as ambassadors for the department, faculty and university. Our Geography students have taken full advantage of this unique resource. I hope they have an enriching and rewarding experience networking with and gaining insights from fellow early career researchers and leaders in their fields." - Professor Eloise Marais, Department Graduate Tutor
Students across the Department have been showcasing research on a wide range of topics, from climate science to urban studies and migration, contributing to global academic conversations and building professional networks.
Attending the AAG Annual Meeting 2025 – Julia Dzun
"The PGR Conference Fund provided an invaluable opportunity to attend the 2025 AAG Annual Meeting in Detroit. I was able to connect with scholars at different stages of their academic careers, share my research, receive feedback, and learn about what others are working on. This year’s theme, “Making Spaces of Possibility”, was particularly relevant to the paper I presented and am co-writing with Dr Tatiana Thieme, titled: Troubling Welcome: Affirmative Inhabitation in Berlin’s Surrounds. The paper interrogates the particular language of ‘welcome’ that has dominated migration discourse in Germany over the past ten years, and provides an alternative account of the spatial practices unfolding in these troubled times." — Julia Dzun, Research Student
Below is the full abstract for the paper:
What kinds of vocabularies can be used to re-describe the spatial practices of urban residents living with/in difference, that defy normative and increasingly unhelpful categories (home, work, and integration) taking place in the urban surrounds? This article brings into conversation reflections from two authors who conducted ethnographic research at different moments in Berlin, Germany, between 2017 and the present.
At this time of accentuated political unsettlement in Germany (and indeed beyond), we trace and map seemingly ordinary spatial practices that form on the street, in cafés, and in rehearsal spaces. Paying close attention to these practices—which animate ongoing urban life and its complicated micro-civilities, hostilities, and solidarities—provides an alternative account of what is unfolding in these troubled times.
It offers an empirical and analytical lens through which we can interrogate the particular language of ‘welcome’ that has dominated migration discourse in Germany over the past decade—with its normative assumptions regarding ‘integration’, its performative politics of care, and its underlying carcerality and potential for expulsion.
By contextualising the seemingly apolitical and ahistorical dominant imperative of ‘welcome’, we argue that it has been complicit in deep-rooted hostilities and bordering regimes that are now increasingly visible, while also concealing alternative practices taking place.
Therefore, we attend to spatial practices at the urban interstices that resist such hostilities, and represent a legacy and continuation of grassroots undercommons that make a neighbourhood in spite of (un)welcome.
Funding award letters for the May 2025 round are being issued now, with students preparing to represent the Department in key academic spaces around the world.
Presenting at the CAPS Conference 2025 – Yaqian Wu
"I’m very grateful to receive the PGR Conference Fund to support my participation in the 2025 Conference for Advancing the Participatory Sciences (CAPS) in the United States this May. I will be presenting my work on “Bridging Data Sources: How Asian Nations Integrate Official and Citizen-Generated Data for SDG Governance” in the Policy and Decision-Making session. This conference provides a rare opportunity to share under-represented regional experiences and connect with leading global scholars and practitioners in citizen science. Having studied at UCL Geography from my MSc in Environment, Politics and Society through to my PhD, I’ve always felt deeply supported by the Department. The care for students and the commitment of staff have consistently encouraged me throughout my academic journey. I’m proud to represent UCL Geography and sincerely appreciate this funding support." —Yaqian Wu, Research Student
“For some of our self-funded students, it makes the difference of being able to attend or not, and it is invaluable that we are able to help facilitate this and promote more equal opportunities." Rebekah Mann, Postgraduate Research Administrator.
Sharing Research at AAG 2025 – Wilfred Jana and Varvara Karipidou
"Thanks to the PGR conference fund, I was able to travel to Detroit, USA, for the 2025 AAG Conference and present my work. The conference proved invaluable - I connected with leading scholars in my field, received thoughtful feedback that will sharpen the next stage of my research, and had the chance to explore a new city!"—Wilfred Jana, Research Student
"With support from the department’s funding, I was able to attend the AAG conference in Detroit. There, I co-organised a session with Prof. Jenny Robinson on ‘(Not) the State in Urban Development’, chaired panels alongside colleagues and friends, and presented my work. It was a great chance to meet scholars from around the world, share ideas, and make new connections."—Varvara Karipidou, Research Student
More information
Picture caption: AAG Conference 2025, Detroit. From left to right: Mariam Genes, University of the Witwatersrand, Wilfred Jana, UCL and Varvara Karipidou, UCL.
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