May 13, 2021, by lzzeb

Presenting at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting

A blog by Martin Danyluk

In April, I presented a virtual paper at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting. After missing last year’s AAG due to the pandemic, it was great to see the conference running smoothly in an online format and to be back in conversation with geographers from around the world.

I was part of two paper sessions on “Municipal Governance and Finance: Before and after the Pandemic.” My co-presenter was Amanda Kass, a PhD candidate in urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago and associate director of the Government Finance Research Center. We workshopped a paper called “Reimagining Geographies of Public Finance,” which we wrote together with a group of junior scholars over the autumn and winter. In the article, we propose a geography of public finance that emphasizes the role of public finance in generating social and spatial inequalities, and we argue that public finance could be reimagined so that it supports the lives and well-being of all people.

As always, it was extremely valuable to get feedback on work in progress from other scholars in the field. While it might take a while for the more informal aspects of conferencing to come back—hallway run-ins, pub nights, exploring new cities—it’s still invigorating to be in dialogue with others who are tackling similar questions. I’m grateful to the School of Geography for the opportunity to attend events like these.

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