Prof R Butlin
15th February 2000 – 30th November 2001
British Academy
The scheme of research will involve a preliminary pilot study geared to the ultimate undertaking of a major, possibly collaborative, project and the production of a major published re-evaluation of the history of the Royal Geographical Society from its foundation in 1830. It will focus particularly on the roles of the Society in the development of the contested and complex discourses of the acquisition, formation and dissemination of cognitive geographical knowledge (including its links with developing science, through and beyond exploration and expedition), and notably in relation to the connections between the cognitive content of Geography and British imperial theory and practice, including trade and the conduct of war.