I am new to the structured, academic world of geography. I have been, up until very recently, far removed from the collegiate world in general. Until sitting down to write this piece, I thought more about what I could study within geography than what geography means to me. This geography master’s program at NAU initially provided a means to an end, a channel through which I could pursue my interests in water conservation and outdoor recreation. After barely dipping my toes into the program, however, I find myself examining my interests through a more critical lens. Feelings, ideas, thoughts, and questions I developed over my years working in the outdoors find foundation and structure in the concepts of critical geography. Geography is hard to define because it is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary study where information, knowledge, methods, and theories from an immensely wide range of areas are valuable. This interdependent approach to studying human-nature interactions and relations appeals to me because it provides a platform to conjoin institutional, academic practices with diverse perspectives and forms of knowledge while leaving room for adaptability and change.
The complexity of social and environmental issues surrounding the Colorado River watershed brought me to the study of geography. Beginning early in the 20th century, U.S. government agencies divided and allocated the water of the Colorado River, its tributaries, and surrounding lands to federal and state agencies and local stakeholders, illuminating underlying social systems of power that continue to dictate who gets access to this land and water. These systems of power and control are exemplified by the creation of tribal reservation lands and the forced removal of indigenous peoples when the areas around the Colorado River became national parks. Furthermore, the allocation of Colorado River water between seven U.S. states, twenty-two tribal nations, and Mexico created a decades-long system of mismanagement that millions of people and much of the U.S.’s agricultural systems rely on (Stern and Sheikh, 2021). The layers of complexity within issues such as this fit with the multi- and interdisciplinary nature of geographic study. An understanding of the social, political, economic, and environmental systems at play is imperative to combat environmental and social degradation. Geography provides an adaptive, collaborative, flexible approach to issues like that of the Colorado River watershed.
What geography means to me now, I imagine, is drastically different from what it will mean by the end of this program. I am fresh off a month on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon where I work as a river guide. In the canyon, geography means getting to know the land, the rocks, and the water intimately. It means becoming in tune with the sunrise and sunset, learning the shapes of the clouds and what they might portend. It is reading the land for pathways and reading the water like a new language. It is a never-ending daily routine of living and breathing the natural world, a constant, humbling lesson. And it is sharing that knowledge with the passengers we take with us. As guides, we teach them about the natural and human history of the canyon and the river - a breadth of information that covers geology, hydrology, botany, environmental change, indigenous peoples, land divisions, water politics, stories, legends, and poetry. Geography, while in Grand Canyon, is experiential as it examines overlapping contexts of formation and use. It is simultaneously a collective learning experience and a deeply personal, oftentimes spiritual, experience – all of which is entwined with the geography of the place
It is this experiential knowledge that I now bring to my studies at NAU, much of which does not come from formal education. Spending so many years as a river guide across the Western U.S. changed my perspective about what knowledge is valuable. The way we, as river guides, learn, share knowledge, and educate is highly informal and often communicated through forms of oral history. My interests in pursuing this master's degree are tangled with that informal knowledge; knowledge that is oftentimes self-guided and inseparable from spirituality, self-expression, and creativity. Newer approaches in geography value engagement with this kind of knowledge as it interacts with academic studies: “Drawing people’s own lived experiences and expertise into such research will not only deepen understandings, but also help to address the knowledge inequities which have pervaded so much research on equity and sustainability to date, which often assumes that only accredited scientists are able to contribute to knowledge generation” (Leach et al., 2018, pg. 11). Collaborating with diverse perspectives connected to or involved with a certain issue or area of study is hugely important. These perspectives are valuable as part of an inclusive geographic approach. For my interests, this means combining my educational and experiential past with the theoretical and methodological frameworks of academic geographic research while incorporating diverse bodies of knowledge to better understand the interdependent systems in Grand Canyon and the Colorado River to achieve a more sustainable, equitable future.
Incorporating knowledge from diverse social groups in geographic research is imperative as geography seeks to redefine itself from its contentious (colonialist and imperialist) past. Geography is a continually evolving field; even its own scholars have historically struggled to define it as one singular academic discipline (Harrison et al., 2004). This means some critics view it as an insubstantial discipline. Conversely, I think its fluidity can represent the growing need for academic disciplines that are less easy to define because they seek to explain concepts and circumstances in the world that are extremely complex and interdependent. Maybe the future of geographic research operates outside of the parameters of traditional academic disciplines. Maybe the concepts geographic scholars seek to understand no longer fit into such strict, singular disciplines. Geography, because of its fluidity, inter- and multidisciplinary nature, and motivations to incorporate diverse bodies of knowledge, might be perfectly situated to provide the space for innovative collaborative research developed from evolving theoretical frameworks. For myself, this fluidity provides a space for research that is less constrained by institutionalized and arbitrary boundaries. A space that is more inclusive of different identities, bodies of knowledge, intersectionalities, and biases. It is within this space that I want to work; where I can research Grand Canyon as a physical place and theoretical space, intertwined with people and plants and rocks that I am endlessly passionate about.
Works Cited
Harrison, S., Massey, D., Richards, K., Magilligan, F. J., Thrift, N., & Bender, B. (2004). Thinking across the Divide: Perspectives on the Conversations between Physical and Human Geography. Area, 36(4), 435–442. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20004417
Kinkaid, E., Fritzsche, L. (2022). The Stories We Tell: Challenging Exclusionary Histories of Geography in U.S. Graduate Curriculum. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 112(8), 2469-2485. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2022.2072805
Leach, M., Reyers, B., Bai, X., Brondizio, E. S., Cook, C., Díaz, S., Espindola, G., Scobie, M., Stafford-Smith, M., & Subramanian, S. M. (2018). Equity and sustainability in the Anthropocene: a social–ecological systems perspective on their intertwined futures. Global Sustainability, 1. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2018.12
Stern, C. V., & Sheikh, P. A. (2021). Management of the Colorado River: water allocations, drought, and the federal role / Charles V. Stern, Pervaze A. Sheikh.. Congressional Research Service. https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20190321_R45546_bbcb0e946b7f42c8c312e2070e766cbecff0c0ee.pdf
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