Next year will see the fourth bi-annual iMigMob conference, hosted by the University of Aberystwyth 8^th-10^th July 2025. Our research group helps to oversee the iMigMob conferences and we look forward to supporting colleagues at Aberystwyth in the coming year. For more information about previous iMigMob conferences please click here

Previous Events

RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London 2024

The Population Geography Research Group (PopGRG) of the RGS-IBG invited proposals for sponsorship at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2024. The conference took place at the RGS-IBG and Imperial College, London in Kensington from Tuesday 27^th – Friday 30^th August 2024. The theme for the 2024 Annual Conference, chaired by Professor Stephen Legg (University of Nottingham) is mapping. You can find out more about the conference and Chair’s theme here.

The PopGRG welcomed session proposals on population geography or the geographies of population as broadly defined and were delighted to support eleven sessions from across the conference programme:

• Embracing Diversity in Later Life: Exploring (In)equalities Among Ethnic Minority/Immigrant Older Adults (Session 1, 2 and Panel (3))
• Everyday Economic Geographies of International Students (Session 1 & 2)
• Interfacing migration, development and urbanisation in Global South cities (Session 1 & 2)
• Power at the Edge: Constructing, Contesting and Reimagining Borders (Session 1& 2)
• Revisiting rural mobilities in turbulent times (Sessions 1 & 2)

We’re grateful to Emily Barker-Jubb and Luke Green for their assistance in organising our sponsored sessions.

The research group were also delighted to secure seven days’ worth of passes for five guests at this year’s conference. We’re grateful to the RGS-IBG for the flexibility this year, that allowed us to invite colleagues from the third sector and support attendance and contributions by international scholars from other disciplines with an interest in population geography.

• Jabeer Butt, Race Equality Foundation
• Floris Liekens, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
• Nadia Siddiqui, Women’s Voices CIC
• Christina R. Victor, Brunel University
• Aideen Young, Centre for Aging Better

PopGRG Social at the RGS-IBG

The research group will hold an informal social during the conference. We will meet at 18:45 outside the Royal College of Music (opposite the Albert Hall) on Prince Consort Road, and head for something to eat in South Kensington. We will then head to the Queen’s Arms in Queen’s Gate Mews at around 20:30 for drinks.

Events Officer: Dr Rhys Dafydd Jones

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The 12^th International Conference on Population Geographies (ICPG 2024)

The ICPG provides a unique opportunity for population scholars to engage with colleagues from around the world, share their research, explore innovative ideas and new developments, and contribute to the discipline. Previous ICPGs have been hosted at St Andrews, Liverpool, Hong Kong, Hanover (USA), Umeå, Groningen, Brisbane, Seattle, Loughborough, and online in Tokyo.

The 12th ICPG took place at Queens University, Belfast from the 30th June until the 3rd of July 2024. The event attracted population scholars from across the globe, and included keynotes from distinguished plenary speakers: Professor Richard Wright (Dartmouth College), Professor Darren Smith (Loughborough University), Professor Shenjing He (University of Hong Kong), as well as a special session and reception to remember the late Professor Aileen Stockdale.

The Conference was chaired by Professor Gemma Catney, with support from the local organizing committee. One such member of the local organizing committee was Abdul-Qadeer Khan, a first year PhD student at Queens University Belfast, who has provided his insights on the 12th International Conference on Population Geographies in our recent blog post (part 1).

The Population geography research group were pleased to support the ICPG with a sponsored tea and coffee event, and a bursary award towards the travel costs for an early career attendee. This bursary was awarded to Ruth Neville, a final-year PhD student at the Geographic Data Science Lab at the University of Liverpool. Ruth has written a blog post reflecting on her ICPG 2024 experience which you can read here (part 2).

More information can be found on the conference website:

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RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London 2023

The Population Geography Research Group (PopGRG) of the RGS-IBG invites you to submit proposals for sponsorship at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2023. The conference will take place at the RGS-IBG and Imperial College, London in Kensington from Tuesday 29 August to Friday 1 September 2023. The RGS-IBG are a planning for an event with in-person, online, and hybrid options (which will be more limited this year). The theme for the 2023 Annual Conference, chaired by Professor Harriet Bulkeley (Durham University) is Climate changed geographies.

The PopGRG welcomes session proposals on population geography, or the geographies of population as broadly defined. This could include but is not exclusive to: migration; diversity; population transitions; population structures; inequalities; birth, lives and death; different methodological approaches to understanding population geography. We welcome proposals for all different types of sessions and actively encourage co-sponsorships with other Research Groups.

While sponsorship is not required, we will promote your session along with the other sessions we sponsor, providing your session with broader publicity within the population geography community. Please note, that while sponsorship does not include financial support, you might be able to apply for a guest pass for your session presenters if they meet the eligibility criteria.

Please send the information below to rhj@aber.ac.uk before 3rd March 2023.

RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London 2021

We are looking forward to the return of the RGS-IBG Annual Conference for 2021. Coinciding with the conference, we will be running our AGM on Thursday 2nd September at 1.00pm on Zoom. For all attending the RGS-IBG Conference, this will be straight after the (Hi)Stories of Population Geography: reflections from PopGRG’s Archiving Project conference session. The AGM will reflect on the activities in the past year and discuss plans for the coming year.

To sign up to attend the AGM, please register via this form: https://lboro.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/popgeog-agm  Details on how to join the meeting will be circulated c. 1 week in advance.  

There are a number of committee roles up for election this year (see list below). The committee is a small friendly and supportive group of academics/those interested in population geography. We work together on shaping the agenda for population geography, which we define in a broad sense, and are always open to new ideas, different perspectives and new members. The below are examples of some initiatives that we have carried out in the past 3 years:

• Launched and publish a range of blogs from academics and policy makers on issues surrounding population: https://popgeog.org
• Pre-conference on Austerity politics and the changing landscapes of inequality, jointly organised by PGRG and SCGRG at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference in 2018
• Conducted a small research project archiving the history of the population geography research group
• School competition for population geography images.

We also have an exciting array of activities forthcoming for the 2021-22 year, including a 50^th anniversary celebration event, an early careers event and a writing retreat. We encourage committee members to contribute what they can to the work of committee, recognising the impact of other activities. If you think you might be interested in joining us, please contact the Secretary (Sophie Cranston- s.cranston@lboro.ac.uk) to discuss informally. However, please note that as the AGM will be online, in order to facilitate online voting we will require a formal expression of interest in the committee position by Thursday the 26^th of August 5pm (BST).

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RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London 2019

Thank you to all those who attended and participated in the PGRG sponsored sessions at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference.

Take a look at the blog post which offers reflections from this years’ conference.

RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, Cardiff 2018

Thank you to all those who attended and participated in the PGRG sponsored sessions at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, which took place in Cardiff from Wednesday 29 to Friday 31 August 2018

Take a look at the minutes of our AGM and the 2017/18 Committee Reports here.

The Population Geography Research Group had a busy programme of events, activities and sponsored sessions.

Thank you to all those who convened sessions, shared their research, participated in pannel discussions and attended. A flavour of the 2018 sessions below-

Pre-conference event: Austerity politics and changing landscapes of inequality

Organised by the Population Geography Research Group and the Social and Cultural Geography Research Group

Speakers included:
Alison Stenning (University of Newcastle) Sarah Marie Hall (University of Manchester) Rory Coulter, (UCL), Sait Bayrakdar (Kings College London) and Ann Berrington (University of Southampton) Jon May (QMUL), Paul Cloke (University of Exeter), Andrew Williams (Cardiff University) and Liev Cherry (QMUL) Rosie Walker (University of Brighton), author of ‘The Rent Trap’

Population Geography Research Group AGM (18.45-8pm) AGM details

Housing landscapes and the life course  Convenors: Rory Coulter (UCL) and Michael Thomas (Groningen) Session details

Interrogating relationships between spatial and social mobility in the Global South Convenor:  Marta Bivand Erdal, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)  Session 1 details   Session 2 details 

Landscapes of Education Migrations and Mobilities  Convenors: Suzanne Beech (Ulster University) and Johanna Waters (University of Oxford) Session 1 details Session 2 details

Landscapes of Gentrification Convenors: Martin Phillips (University of Leicester) and Darren Smith (Loughborough University) Session 1 details  Session 2 details

The geographies of migrant politics Convenors: Liz Mavroudi and Sophie Cranston (Loughborough University)    Session 1 details   Session 2 details

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2017 RGS IBG Annual International Conference

The 2017 Annual International Conference was held at the Royal Geographical Society in London, from Tuesday 29 August to Friday 1 September 2017.

This years conference was chaired by Sarah Radcliffe (University of Cambridge, UK). The chair’s theme was ‘Decolonising geographical knowledges: opening geography out to the world’.

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A number of our members attended the 9th International Conference on Population Geographies at the University of Washington, Seattle, June 29-July 1, 2017.