UCL Student Sarah Lim reflects on attending the American Association of Geographers Conference

Sarah Lim is a 3rd year undergraduate student at UCL, studying Geography (International) with Social Data Science. She recently attended the American Association of Geographers conference in Detroit, Michigan from 24-28 March 2025 and details her experience below. 

"As I am currently doing my year abroad at the University of Michigan, I took the opportunity to attend the annual American Association of Geographers (AAG) conference, which happened to be held in Detroit this year.  

It was my first time attending such a large-scale academic conference. I initially found it quite difficult to choose to attend only one of the 50 simultaneous sessions, because they all seemed interesting to me. It was also very surreal being surrounded by 5400 Geographers from around the world. Running into some UCL faculty members in attendance definitely gave me some sense of comfort and familiarity. 

Above left: Professor James Cheshire and Sarah Lim
Above right: Professor Tariq Jazeel and Professor Ben Page and Sarah Lim

The presentations and lectures, while sometimes challenging to follow, were incredibly insightful and thought-provoking. Sitting in a room listening to the field’s leaders critiquing one another definitely left an impression on me. I am also grateful for the chance to speak with a few of them! 

Since the University of Michigan is not far from Detroit, many attendees visited the campus town, with some giving guest lectures. 

I attended Dariusz Wójcik’s talk for his book, Atlas of Finance, written in collaboration with James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti. It was great learning about how scholars use storytelling to make their work accessible to a broader audience, while preserving intricate details through data visualisation techniques. 

It was a fantastic and rewarding experience, and if anyone has the opportunity to attend a conference, I highly recommend it! " 

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Links:
Sarah Lim LinkedIn
American Association of Geographers Conference
UCL Social Data Institute
UCL Department of Geography

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