Mobility Humanities

Tim Cresswell is a human geographer and poet, a hugely original and insightful writer and teacher, and an influential force within the discipline of Geography, the interdisciplinary field of mobility studies and much further afield. This interview, recorded in February 2020 in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (Tim has since written about “valuing” mobility during COVID-19 [2021]), was recorded by Jinhyoung Lee and myself over breakfast in Tim’s home in Edinburgh. He is currently Ogilvie Professor of Geography at the University of Edinburgh, after serving as Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. Tim was awarded his first PhD under the supervision of Yi-Fu Tuan at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a second PhD in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway University of London on Topo-poetics: Poetry and Place (2015) under the supervision of the poet Jo Shapcott. The relationship between mobility, place and creative writing can be compared to a triple-helix of concerns we discuss through his work and this interview.