Celebrating Black Geographers: Spotlight on Jasmine Roberts
What inspired you to pursue geography?
I like to think Geography pursued me, as it does for many of us, even before we fully realise it. My studies didn’t begin with Geography, but looking back, it was always there. I ‘officially’ came to the discipline at master’s level, drawn in by an interest in migration and diaspora studies. My undergraduate degree was in Politics and International Relations, so not too far removed. Even then, I found myself writing a dissertation on South London gentrification and the racialisation of space. At the time, I was simply writing about issues on my doorstep, what mattered to me and my local community. Now, I see that these connections have a scholarly home within Black geographies. You will have the words before you have the language, but there is always geographical research you already live and breathe.
How does your identity shape your work in geography?
I am undeniably drawn to geographies that reflect my existence and experiences as a British-Ghanaian woman, its joys, challenges, and dualities. I credit the Black women around and before me who nurture many of us, several of whom are natural storytellers, archivists, historians, and perhaps even geographers, often doing the work without calling it such. Still, my work is shaped by many other parts of who I am, particularly my relationships and from being in community with others. In that sense, my identity is only a starting point. It intersects with other layers of experience and livelihood that continually inform and reinform my work. Geography then becomes a lens through which I explore how all of this moves together, even in the most everyday spaces.
Which of your projects or publications are you most proud of and why?
I am most proud of my first journal article Practice, politics, and publics: Doing public historical geography in a Black archive, co-written with Jacob Fairless Nicholson and Nathaniel Télémaque. We have been researching and writing together as a trio since 2023, and the process of working collectively, both within and beyond the academy and our own institutions, has been just as meaningful as the outcomes. I also want to acknowledge and thank the Black Cultural Archives for being a home to most of this research.
I also want to highlight my work at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in relaunching Geography for All, an umbrella initiative that currently supports Black, Brown, and minority ethnic geographers before, during, and after university. I am most proud of how deeply this work is rooted in care and in collaboration with those already leading the way in shaping equitable futures.
What advice would you give to aspiring geographers?
Work with the parts of the discipline that work for you. I’m especially thinking of Black, Brown, and minority geographers who, for good reason, don’t always feel seen in a discipline that is also theirs. Geography is broad enough for you to find many scholarly homes and interests within, across, and beyond it. It is your springboard, so use it. Make it messy, blur any and perhaps all the lines, and be in conversation with those who have done exactly that. This blog series is a great place to start!