The Summer Geography Found Me

This summer unexpectedly became a reflection on geography.

In an age dominated by technology and AI, geography can easily feel like a discipline of the past. I hear this sentiment every year from MYP Year 5 students as they choose their DP subjects. In fact, we no longer need to read the sky ourselves or unfold a paper map before setting off on a journey.

If anything, this summer reminded me that geography has never been simply about maps. It is about understanding how places shape people, how ideas travel across borders, and how the physical world continues to influence our lives in ways we often overlook.

The summer began with a road trip from Rome to Tuscany. One of the most memorable places I visited was the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican Museums. Walking through its 120-metre corridor lined with remarkably detailed maps created centuries ago, I wondered how such extensive geographical knowledge had been produced, and, more importantly, what it had enabled.

Those maps were never merely records of landscapes. They represented knowledge, power, and influence. They shaped exploration, political ambition, trade, and ultimately history itself.

That reflection stayed with me throughout my Ed.D. International Education summer course at the University of Bath.

The week gave me the opportunity to revisit countless ideas I have been exploring over the past years: International Mindedness, neoliberalism, and the "changing landscape of international education". I left Bath deeply grateful, not only for the opportunity to learn from leading scholars in the field, but also for the conversations shared with brilliant thinkers from around the world.

AI-generated image created with ChatGPT, inspired by the “Head, Heart, and Hands” activity from

Elisabeth Barratt Hacking’s Reconceptualising International Mindedness,

presented in International Education: Philosophy and Practice at the University of Bath.

That perspective followed me to an IB event in Jeonju, where I had the pleasure of working alongside the ever-caring Dr. Justin Zhang, my Field Representative partner-in-crime for the weekend. With the conversations from Bath still fresh in my mind, I found myself thinking about how the IB could be meaningfully adapted to this specific context while remaining true to its philosophy and mission to create a better, more peaceful world through education.

Then, of course, there was this summer's temperature.

Sitting in a glass-roofed conservatory for two hours while coaching IBEN candidates under the unusually intense English sun, I could not ignore how unbearably hot had become. Climate change no longer felt like an abstract conversation. It was immediate, tangible, and impossible to ignore.

By the end of the summer, I realised that geography is far from an outdated discipline. If anything, it has become more relevant and powerful than ever.

"Technology may seem to overcome the distances between us in both mental and physical space, but it is easy to forget that the land where we live, work and raise our children is hugely important." - Tim Marshall, Prisoners of Geography