Caribbean Historical Geographies and British Geography

ABSTRACT

This paper draws from discussions arising during the 2024 RGS‐IBG Annual Conference session Historical Geographies of the Caribbean  and critically contemplates the presence—or not—of Caribbean historical geographies across the historic and contemporary enterprise of British Geography. Given the significance of the Caribbean archipelago across the globe, we begin by exploring the presence of Caribbean historical geographies across British and North American geography publications. We follow by considering the histories of the British discipline and its cultural, contingent and contextual historiographical relationship with the Caribbean in comparison with other humanities and social science disciplines, across the United Kingdom and the Caribbean. Reflections are also made regarding the discipline of British geography and its relationship with Caribbean Studies before concluding how (historical) Geography itself might serve as a conduit for more nuanced, grounded and practical ways forward in centring the intellectual and pedagogical sensibilities for Caribbean histories and geographies going forward.