Geography Colloquium #11 (2019-2020): Boris Michel and Johann Braun on the rise of right-wing populism in Germany

Dr Boris Michel and Dr Johann Braun from the Institut für Geographie of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg will jointly give a talk for the Geography Colloquium Series. The lecture, entitled Political Geographies of Right-wing Politics and Populism in Germany, takes place on Monday, February 24, 2020 at 3:00PM in Pavilion 2248. This talk is sponsored by the Human Geography (HUG) research cluster.

Dr Michel's recent publication is on anti-semitism in German geography, while Dr Braun's latest is on Kotti and critical cartography (with Frederieke Westerheide).  

Dylan Beatty on West Philippine Sea/South China Sea geopolitics in the Geography Brown Bag Colloquium Series.

The Brown Bag Colloquium Series for academic year 2019-2020 formally started with Dylan Beatty's talk entitled Peace, Stability and Maritime Militias: New Visions of China’s Role in Maritime Southeast Asia on Thursday, 29 August 2019 at PAV 2248.

Mr Beatty - a PhD candidate from the Department of Geography and Environment from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and fellow at the East West Center - outlined his talk by discussing the multi-level and multi-scalar dimensions of the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea geopolitics. Deploying critical discourse analysis, Mr Beatty investigated documents and press releases of different Chinese agencies in relation to the contested waters between the Philippines and mainland Asia. These agencies include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Foreign Ministry), Ministry of National Defense (MND) and National People’s Congress (NPC) where each institution released English-language statements. They cover the period from 2011 to 2019.

One of the key arguments of the talk is the move to use South China Sea as a site for China's history to re-situate Imperial China with the modern China's geopolitical imagination. Mr Beatty also looks at the multi-scalar, discursive, materialist and cartographic dimensions of the tenuous claims for islands in the conflict water zone. Two of the themes that emerge from the public discourse emanating from statements from three Chinese agencies, are particularly interesting: (1) Military “defense construction” in the South China Sea strengthens China’s economy and the civilian sphere, and (2) China is not militarizing the South China Sea; rather, this is being done by other countries, especially the U.S.

Mr Beatty ended his talk with argumentative points. One of which states that China’s public discourses juxtapose the concept of peace in Southeast Asia with China’s sovereignty over the South China Sea.

Photo: Dominique Amorsolo
Brown Bag Logo: Pat Algura

Geography Colloquium #1 (2019-2020): Dylan Beatty to open this semester's Geography Brown Bag Colloquium Series

Dylan Beatty will give a lecture on West Philippine Sea geopolitics on August 29 (Thursday). 

Beatty Discusses Maritime Disputes and Territoriality in the Spratly Islands

On November 27, 2018, Dylan Beatty from the University of Manoa at Hawaii talked about maritime disputes and territoriality in the Spratly Islands in his presentation, “Fluid Territories: Violence and Fishing in the Spratly Islands”. The event was co-presented by the UP Department of Geography and the Geomajie Core Group and was held in Palma Hall Room 207.

In the presentation, which is part of Mr. Beatty’s Master’s thesis and ongoing doctoral dissertation, Mr.  Beatty argues that “the construction of artificial islands creates emergent yet permanent places of sovereignty that project violent territoriality through adjacent ocean-space”—fluid territoriality. His methodology involves semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from Kalayaan and Palawan, discourse analysis of statements and documents from key agencies in China and in the Philippines, and cartographic analyses of maps from Justice Antonio Carpio’s exhibit and the archives of the Ateneo de Manila University.

Dylan Beatty is a Ph.D. candidate from the Department of Geography and Environment in the University of Manoa at Hawaii. His research interests include political geography, maritime disputes in the Southeast Asia and in the Philippines, and the rise of China as a global power.

By Maria Celeste Hermida