Heo/Geo Lecture Series 2026-05: Kevin Fox on geographic inquiries initiated by the Geographical Imaginations Expedition & Institute

When Derek Gregory published Geographical Imaginations in 1994, the book puts emphasis on relational understanding of individual worlds as intertwined with global-universalisms. Gregory was not the first one to discuss permutations of imagination in relation to geography. Hugh Prince, David Harvey, Yi-Fu Tuan, Katherine McKittrick and Jen Jack Gieseking added different interpretations, case studies, and situated ecologies to expand the scope and reach of geographical imaginations. 

It is perhaps in this spiritual vein that Kevin Fox's version of geographical imagination as formalized by founding The Geographical Imaginations Expedition & Institute (The GIEI), stems from pluralizing the concept (like Gregory) and providing multi-scalar and multi-cultural examples of meaning-making that situate individuals and collectives in space and place.

For the fifth Heo/Geo Lecture Series for 2026, the Department of Geography (DGeog) of the University of the Philippines-Diliman together with the Philippine Geographical Society (PGS) proudly present a talk: Inner Geographies: Imagination, Experience, and Global Citizenship by Kevin Fox on Friday, 24 April 2026. To be delivered via Zoom, the talk starts at 5:30PM-Philippine Standard Time (11:30AM CET). 

The talk introduces the work of The Geographical Imaginations Expedition & Institute (The GIEI), a non-profit initiative working across three interconnected geographical dimensions: the global, the local, and the inner. The GIEI translates key ideas from human geography into accessible and participatory forms, expanding popular understandings of geography to include the internal dimensions of perception, imagination, and meaning-making that shape how individuals locate themselves within an interconnected planet.

The name draws inspiration from the Detroit Geographical Expedition & Institute (1968–1971), an experiment in local, community-based geography that sought to democratize knowledge production and center marginalized perspectives.  Building on this legacy, The GIEI extends geographic inquiry inward, treating the inner world as a legitimate site of exploration. From this foundation, it develops participatory approaches to global citizenship education through interconnected practices including research, storytelling, simulation, advocacy, and lexicon-building.

Central to this work is The World as a Village of 100 People, a civic-assembly simulation that translates global inequalities into lived, dialogic experience. The process unfolds across three phases—orientation, imagination, and transformation—guiding participants from understanding global systems, to inhabiting diverse perspectives, to collectively envisioning alternative futures.

Moving from The GIEI’s earlier work in visual and audio storytelling toward a broader institutional vision (The GIEI 2.0), the talk reflects on the shift from project-based initiatives to the design of scalable frameworks for global citizenship learning.

Kevin S. Fox is a human geographer and the founder and director of The Geographical Imaginations Expedition & Institute. With over 20 years of experience in global citizenship education, his work explores how individuals and communities understand their place within an interconnected world. He has developed programs that integrate storytelling, simulation, and field-based learning to make global systems more accessible and participatory. A National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow and Inner Development Goals Ambassador, he works at the intersection of human geography, critical pedagogy, and imagination to advance new models of global learning. Originally from Connecticut (USA), he currently lives on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees.

The Heo/Geo Lecture Series is a monthly resource talk / lecture given by academic geographers, geography-adjacent scholars, practitioners working in geospatial industries, and partners that engaged in multiple publics, and based locally and abroad. The talk ranges from the sharing of research findings to pedagogical practices and field-based experiences. This month’s Heo/Geo Lecture Series is facilitated by two research clusters at the UP Department of Geography: Human Geography (HUG) and Media, Literary Geographies, and Geohumanities (MELANGE) and is in line with the SDG #4 (Quality Education) of the United Nations.

To participate in the event, click this link to register. You can also click this link: https://tinyurl.com/4bmbjrz2

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Works cited:

Fox, Kevin S. The Geographical Imaginations Expedition & Institute

https://www.geographicalimaginations.org/about/ 

Gieseking, Jen Jack. 2017. Geographical Imagination. In International Encyclopedia of Geography (eds. D. Richardson, N.Castree, M. Goodchild, A. Jaffrey, W. Liu, A. Kobayashi, and R. Marston). New York: Wiley-Blackwell and the Association of American Geographers.

Gregory, Derek. 1994. Geographical imaginations, Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Harvey, David. 1973. Social Justice and the City. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press.

McKittrick, Katherine. 2006. Demonic Grounds Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Prince, Hugh C. 1962. The Geographical Imagination. Landscape 11: 22–25. 

Tua, Yi-Fu. 1977. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, University of Minnesota Press.