Laureation address: Professor Linda M McDowell CBE MA MPhil PhD DLitt FBA
Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science
Laureation by Professor Jo Sharp, School of Geography and Sustainable Development
Tuesday 21 June 2022
Vice-Chancellor, it is my privilege to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Professor Linda McDowell.
Professor McDowell is one of the leading figures in academic geography. She has held chairs at the universities of Oxford, the London School of Economics and University College London, has authored ten research monographs, edited 12 collections, and has published more than 170 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Her work has been translated into nine languages. She has been awarded two marks of distinction by the Royal Geographical Society – the Back Award for contributions to economic geography in 1998 and the Victoria Medal for research excellence in 2008. In that year she was also elected to a Fellowship by the British Academy. In 2016 she was appointed Commander of the British Empire for services to Geography and the Social Sciences. And she has a son, a daughter and six grandsons.
Professor McDowell’s research has focused on understanding the pressing implications of economic and social restructuring in Britain, drawing attention to the stark geographical contrast these processes generated and the impact they had on particular people, whether the workplace identities of bankers in the City of London, or less privileged young men or migrant women negotiating work. In each case, Professor McDowell has balanced intellectual insight with an exceptional attentiveness to the voices and experiences of those she had interviewed.
When Professor McDowell began her career, geography was a gender-blind discipline which characteristically studied “man and environment”. Her insistence on the need to recognise not just that women should be seen as worthy of academic study, but also as producers of that knowledge, has made the discipline a welcoming place for women and others who previously felt excluded from it.
She was the inaugural chair of the Women and Geography Study Group of the Royal Geographical Society in 1981 and co-wrote the first formal statement about the need for a feminist geography three years later. Throughout her career she has been an advocate of wider access to elite institutions and to encourage this has been involved in events with schoolteachers, local geographical societies and schools.
Every discipline, if it is to change, needs a pioneer and role model to inspire and guide future generations. For many geographers, Professor McDowell is that person; I am one of those geographers – if it was not for her encouragement in my early career, I doubt I would be standing here as Geographer Royal for Scotland today.
Vice-Chancellor, in recognition of her major contribution to geography, I invite you to confer the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, on Professor Linda McDowell.