
YES!
Young and Early career Scholars
An initiative of the IGU Commission on Gender and Geography

YES!
COMMITTEE CHAIRS & STEERING GROUP
Elisabeth Militz
Co-Chair
I am a feminist geographer with a focus on global intimate relations and digital transformations. My research combines geographical theories of the body, emotions and affect, feminist technoscience and digital and affective research methods with empirical fieldwork in Eurasian borderlands. From an intersectional research perspective, I seek to understand how spaces of intimacy, everyday experiences of identity politics, and digital technologies are intertwined. I studied in Germany and the United States and completed my PhD in Geography at the University of Zurich in 2017. Since the fall of 2022, I have been an assistant professor of social and digital geographies at the University of Innsbruck. I have learned from feminist scholars in different places worldwide, how to effect change through collaborative and joyful research practices. Through the welcoming and inspiring spaces created by feminist geography collectives (e.g. at the University of Bern, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Guelph), I have found my academic home in feminist geography. I look forward to fostering the transnational feminist connections of YES! and contributing to a caring network of feminist early-career scholars from all regions of the world.
Senior Writing Fellow
Centre for Writing and Communication
Maria Anne Fitzgerald
Co-Chair
I am a feminist geographer with a keen interest in mapping the way identity and space co-constitute the social world of children/young people. The recurrent themes I draw on in my work are youth/young people, identities, gender, liminality, belongingness and the familial/social environment. As a feminist scholar, I focus on visibilising the experiences of children/young people across multiple spatial scales and uncovering power relations between children/young people and the adult world. I am happy to be connected to a transnational network of young and early feminist scholars through YES! As a Steering Committee Member, I look forward to reciprocating care in greater measure than I've received, to create inclusive, safe and supportive spaces for early-career scholars & feminist geographers, especially from the Global South.
Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF)
mamoreno@untref.edu.ar
Magdalena Moreno
Steering Committee Member
I am a feminist geographer born in Buenos Aires. My doctoral thesis focused on The spatial configuration of human trafficking for sexual exploitation in Argentina, 2008-2018 (UAB cum laude). I developed lines of research on two interlocked areas : Geographies of gender and sexualities and sexual education. In the former, I delved into spatial contributions within gender and queer theory which led me to recover the itinerary of the Geographies of gender and sexualities in Europe and Latin America. Secondly, my focus was anchored on establishing dialogue between Geography in higher education and comprehensive sexual education. My first book Geography and Comprehensive Sexual Education. Contributions to the teaching of contemporary spaces, was selected by the Department of CSE of Buenos Aires which printed and distributed 27,000 copies. I created the Interactive and collaborative world Map of Geographies of sexualities, a digital platform that systematizes the scientific productions, academic events and political initiatives on Geographies of gender and sexualities around the world. My latest contributions to the field were the initiative and leadership of the research group Geography, Gender and Sexualities and the creation and coordination of the Higher Diploma in Geography and Gender and Sexualities Perspective, both founded at (UNTref).
School of Geography, Environment Earth Sciences
Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington
mariateresa.bragabizarria@vuw.ac.nz
Maria Teresa Braga Bizarria
Steering Committee Member
As a feminist geographer and scholar-artivist, my research focuses on the multiscalarity of (agri)cultural practices and their potential as spaces for intersectional justice. Working with embodied and posthuman frameworks, the politics of bodies is the backbone of my academic and activist projects. I am enthusiastic about exploring the relationships between human and more-than-human agents, and how material agency can inform the operation of oppressive dynamics, as well as mediate and inspire spatialised practices of care from the everyday and local scales. I engage with participatory and creative methods and their potential to propose decolonial and feminist practices that respond to a more than human ethics of care. As a member of YES! I am pleased to support the aims of the collective to be a supportive, safe and
inspiring platform for students and early career professionals in our network.
PAST CO-CHAIRS AND STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Caroline Faria

Milena Janiec
School of Geosciences
University of South Florida

Laura Pascoe
Department of Gender Studies
Queen’s University (Ontario)

Ann E. Bartos
School of Environment
University of Auckland