Geografie, teorie, biografie

This paper largely echoes the presentation I gave at AGeI’s first Scuola di Alta Formazione held in Rome in 2020, which consisted of an attempt to discuss, with those about to embark on an academic career in geography, the intersections of theories, debates, venues, institutions, events, and people that underlie all disciplinary practices, as well as how these same intersections often decisively determine our academic trajectories. For this reason, this essay presents a deliberately autobiographical angle. The purpose of this choice is to share some reflections on choices and paths I have taken in my work with respect to which epistemological issues that traversed the discipline and its environs imposed themselves sometimes as genuine obstacles, sometimes as genuine opportunities. In fact, the trajectory of every early career researcher today, in geography as elsewhere, necessarily navigates between national and international arenas, in an incessant negotiation of languages and practices that, without neglecting the relevance of the context in which we operate, at the same time must take into account our relentless work of positioning ourselves with respect to the theoretical and conceptual twists and turns of the international debate.