Last month I wrote about the situation on Ukraine, discussing its various facets from a political geographer’s point of view. Essentially this was my first attempt at a bit of current affairs blogging, something that I will concede bears minimal obvious relevance to my position as postgraduate ambassador for geography. Since that point, however, the exercise has had me thinking about the wider connections between my subject, university and such discussion.

Needless to say, the Ukrainian situation is very much ongoing and I could quite happily put together another 500 words or so regarding recent, increasingly concerning developments. I’ll leave that to a geographer far more accomplished than myself for now however – link below should I have tickled your interest. I could also do exactly the same for a multitude of subjects – the EU debates between Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage last week, Scottish independence, developments in Syria and the recent twitter embargo in Turkey are but a few that come to mind. Any of the above could produce a fascinating and productive postgraduate dissertation in geography – should you be a political geographer thinking of applying, you can have those for free!

There are few places better to consider these potential topics than Newcastle, with its strength in (among numerous other areas) political and economic geographies. If your interest is in the latter CURDS should be an invaluable resource to you; the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies based at Newcastle is an internationally renowned research institute in such areas. A key measure of their work is the impact they have been able to have in local policy. Impact is something of a buzzword around postgraduate study here at present, and such can only be a feather in the cap of anyone job-seeking with a postgraduate qualification from Newcastle.

At the other end of the scale the postgraduate community in geography also provides ample space for engaging discussions around current affairs issues – whether this be in seminars or simply down the pub – and this has to be one of the most enjoyable aspects of postgraduate study for me so far.

I have to finish this month by congratulating my coursemates Jenny, Maddy and Jade on achieving PhD funding to continue at Newcastle for the next three years – well done chaps!

A leading political geographer’s perspective on the annexation of Crimea:

http://toal.org/2014/03/18/putins-annexation-of-crimea-speech-annotated/