Pauline Couper
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Pauline Couper
@paulinecouper.bsky.social
1.2K followers 970 following 210 posts
Geographer. Geographical thought & practice, philosophy of geog, epistemic pluralism, geomorphology, higher ed.
Assoc Prof & Head of dept, York St John Uni, UK. FRGS, PFHEA, CGeog. #academicsky #geosky
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Mighty fine weather for graduation week.
Photograph of York St John University's Quad, with snow falling. Big white letters spell YSJU on the far side of the Quad, ready for graduates to pose beside for photos.
November 20, 2025 at 8:19 AM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
Excellent #fieldtrip yesterday looking at #RiverManagement across the Hull catchment, from headwaters to the Humber estuary. Organised & led by @geoskinner.games, with insights from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Natural England & Hull City Council. And the weather stayed dry for us!
Students looking at Driffield Trout Stream, one of the most northerly chalk streams in the UK. A meander on the Driffield Trout Stream, restored within the last 4 years. Photo shows a chalk stream with varied bed and plenty of in-stream vegetation. Students looking across the Humber Estuary, standing alongside the flood wall. The Deep aquarium is behind, and Voyage statue stands above them.
November 6, 2025 at 6:27 AM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
Fabulous couple of days at the Philosophy of Geography conference for doctoral researchers, University of Oulu, organised by Dr Johanna Sitomaniemi-San, Prof
Eeva-Kaisa Prokkola & Dr Marika Kettunen. The university's botanical gardens were the perfect setting. 1/2
Inside the botanical gardens, tropical area. A brick path winds between big leafy plants. More big plants around a pond. Look carefully and there's a fly-trap plant hanging above the water. An Australian wollemi tree, described on the adjacent information panel as one of the world's rarest trees. University of Oulu complimentary notebook and pen, made of cardboard. Sustainability concerns were very much in evidence everywhere in the University.
October 8, 2025 at 7:46 AM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
A super first day at the University of Oulu, Finland. Honoured to be the opening speaker for the Geography Research Unit's inaugural Philosophy of Geography conference for PhD researchers. Discussion time raised lots of big questions about the nature of geography. A bit of sightseeing a bonus!
Toripolliisi, a big statue of a policeman View across the water towards Pikisaari island. A white bridge for pedestrians and cyclists crosses from left to right. Pikisaari huvimaja, a bathhouse with small pavilion above, alongside autumnal trees. The main street of Pikisaari, lined with wooden houses and trees.
October 6, 2025 at 2:31 PM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
Good to see this in print. Health & safety has potential for making dull reading, but co-authoring this with Matt Bellew, the uni's Health and Safety Advisor, made it the most fun thing to write. 🙏
Congrats to Dan & Naomi for making the book happen!
#fieldwork #Geosky
Photo of a new book, 'The Routledge Handbook of Field Research', edited by Daniel Hammett and Naomi Holmes Chapter 20: 'Life Savers. Ensuring health safety works for you', by Pauline Couper and Matt Bellew
September 22, 2025 at 7:13 AM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
So is just me or does anyone else see a pliosaur (head) with a fish between its jaws?
⚒️
Photo of house roofs with deep blue sky above. Clouds above the houses look (to me, at least) like a dinosaur head with open mouth, with something smaller between its jaws. Other Half is not convinced.
September 4, 2025 at 7:56 PM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
Sometimes it's interesting to know more about what's in your backyard. Fortunate to have a colleague who teaches ecology & biogeography, and suggested I try one of our bat-detectors. 🦇💚🖤
Screenshot of a phone screen, mostly black but with pop-up bar showing 'common pipistrelle' as the most likely bat call detected.
September 1, 2025 at 8:06 PM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
Fascinated by Pavegen technology at Uni of B'ham, generating electricity for phone charging from foot traffic. Location would obviously be busy when the academic year is in full flow. Wondering how well it works: spotting it made me walk back & forth (novelty), but are the charging points used?
A grid of triangle tiles with sign on the wall behind explaining that walking across the tiles generates electricity, & inviting people to use the electricity to charge their phones on the benches nearby.
August 30, 2025 at 8:00 PM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
As when I've seen the men's team play IRL, I'm struck by how much is lost when you watch on TV. These women are phenomenally strong, astonishingly accurate in passing & kicking, the tackles look bone-crunching. There's a kind of vitality & aura that the camera/screen can never convey.
2/3
The two teams in a scrum Action pic: the ball is bouncing left to right with a Black Fern reaching for it, a Spanish player at her heels. Other players from both teams are approaching from the right.
August 25, 2025 at 8:41 AM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
NZ v Spain for the two teams' first match of the Women's Rugby World Cup. All credit to the Spanish supporters, who very vocally supported their team throughout the 54-8 defeat. The atmosphere was brilliant. 1/3
🇳🇿🏉🇪🇸
The teams line up for national anthems, with huge flags held over the pitch The Black Ferns - wearing white jerseys for this match - perform the haka before kick-off.
August 25, 2025 at 8:41 AM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
As when I've seen the men's team play IRL, I'm struck by how much is lost when you watch on TV. These women are phenomenally strong, astonishingly accurate in passing & kicking, the tackles look bone-crunching. There's a kind of vitality & aura that the camera/screen can never convey.
2/3
The two teams in a scrum Action pic: the ball is bouncing left to right with a Black Fern reaching for it, a Spanish player at her heels. Other players from both teams are approaching from the right.
August 25, 2025 at 8:26 AM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
NZ v Spain for the two teams' first match of the Women's Rugby World Cup. All credit to the Spanish supporters, who very vocally supported their team throughout the 54-8 defeat. The atmosphere was brilliant. 1/3
🇳🇿🏉🇪🇸
The teams line up for national anthems, with huge flags held over the pitch The Black Ferns - wearing white jerseys for this match - perform the haka before kick-off.
August 25, 2025 at 8:26 AM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
And traces of a ledge bank morphology, possibly indicator that subaerial processes dominated above the water line (see Couper 2003: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... - which was based on the Warwickshire R. Arrow, a different river).2/2
River bank in abandoned channel. Bank materials are fine, and a small ledge occurs in the bottom third of the bank. Plants are colonising the ledge.
August 5, 2025 at 9:54 AM
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Composite river bank of a recently (in last few yrs) abandoned channel, River Arrow, Herefordshire. 1/2
Algae-filled still water beneath a river bank. The bank has coarse material in the bottom half, fine soil above; a typical composite bank. Looking what would have been upstream at a longer section of bank. The coarse material in the bottom half varies in colour: grey at the far end, orangey in the middle, reddish brown at the near end. Fine soil above.
August 5, 2025 at 9:54 AM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
Clouds building over Herefordshire. Views from Bradnor Hill.
The top four-fifths of the photo is full of cloud, deep bluey grey at the bottom, white up above with sun on the tops. The bottom of the photo is a landscape of fields. A stone wall recedes into the distance, bracken on one side and a field on the other. In the far distance the hills fade to blue, a bank of cloud above them.
August 3, 2025 at 11:36 AM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
Summer reading. Currently enjoying Vaihinger's account of the 'fictions' that science is reliant on. 1/2
Photo of two books. On top is Michael Polanyi's "The Tacit Dimension". Beneath is "The Philosophy of 'As if'" by Hans Vaihinger.
August 2, 2025 at 7:55 AM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
The uni seems to be finding new ways to challenge us.
Photo shows a freestanding sign-board carrying a sign that says "Exit through this room", with an arrow pointing to the right. The sign is outside, with no building (and so no room) adjacent. To the right is a wide pathway surrounded by trees.
June 19, 2025 at 7:50 AM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
Oh my. I Google searched, looking for #notallgeographers posts mentioning Gill Valentine (explaining #notallgeographers to a colleague). Google's AI overview in the screenshot. 😲🙄🤔

New stereotype: geographers, experts in Valentine's day.💗

#Geosky #AcademicSky #AI #AcademicChatter #AIFail
Screenshot of a Google search on "#notallgeographers valentine". Google's AI overview says: "The hashtag #notallgeographers is a response to the stereotype that all geographers are experts in Valentine's Day. It humorously points out that while some geographers might find the holiday interesting from a historical or cultural perspective (like its origins in the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer or the executions of men named Valentine), it's not a universally embraced or studied topic within the field. Many geographers, like other individuals, may simply celebrate or not celebrate it based on personal preference."
June 16, 2025 at 8:51 AM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
...but 'British' has gone in the opposite direction. 6/7
Graph showing the number of mentions of the word 'British' per thousand published words in philosophy journals, 1980 to 2020. The data shows an increase throughout the period.
May 15, 2025 at 8:31 PM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
...as has 'American', so maybe should try 'Anglophone'?... 5/7
Graph showing the number of mentions of the word 'American' per thousand published words in philosophy journals, 1980 to 2020. The data shows a jump in usage from 2010 onwards.
May 15, 2025 at 8:31 PM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
'English' has declined... 4/7
Graph showing the number of mentions of the word 'English' per thousand published words in philosophy journals, 1980 to 2020. The data shows a pretty steady decline throughout.
May 15, 2025 at 8:31 PM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
'African' sees more steady usage. (Note the x-axis scale is different too.) 3/7
Graph showing the number of mentions of the word 'African' per thousand published words in philosophy journals, 1980 to 2020. The data shows fluctuation from year to year, though slightly increasing with time.
May 15, 2025 at 8:31 PM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
'Pacific': what (who?) caused such a change c.2010 and onwards? 2/7
Graph showing the number of mentions of the word 'Pacific' per thousand published words in philosophy journals, 1980 to 2020. The data shows a jump in usage from 2010 onwards.
May 15, 2025 at 8:31 PM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
And Course Team of the Year 2025 is...Geography!!🎈🎉
All good fun at the YSJ SU Awards last night, with one of the geographers also getting Inspirational Staff Member Award. 👏🏼
Four of the geographers in a row for a celebratory photograph. Left to right: Olalekan Adekola, Pauline Couper (with cycle helmet hair), Abby Mycroft (inspirational staff member), Jude Parks. Certificate for Course Team of the Year, YSJ Awards 2025. Abby on stage receiving her award from the Vice Chancellor and the SU President: Education. Behind them are the letter YSJ in lights.
May 8, 2025 at 8:39 AM
paulinecouper.bsky.social
Textile map of Leominster, 1832, complete with separate key. A bonus alongside coffee & cake.
Photo of wall hanging showing a map of Leominster. Brown and green fabrics distinguish between fields, orchards and burial grounds. Roads and rivers are all labelled. The church and market hall are prominent buildings. A small frames piece hanging alongside provides the key to the map.
April 5, 2025 at 1:02 PM