Teaching GIScience in the multidisciplinary nexus

Abstract

Many GIScientists are affiliated with institutions beyond what we would call core GIScience. This implies that we teach in degree programs that follow their own curricular logic, and presents us with challenges in terms of what to teach, how to possibly attract students to GIScience careers, and in terms of our own self-images and identities. After briefly taking stock of some of the bigger curricular initiatives from the past 30 years, and informed by a brief discussion of key arguments and findings regarding teaching GIScience ‘elsewhere’, this commentary aims to stimulate discussion on the multifaceted and multidisciplinary nexus in which many of us are embedded. The commentary includes short reflections on the implications of the multidisciplinary contexts mentioned for the creation of a GIScience identity among students enrolled in other degrees, recruitment of PhD students and faculty, and what all this possibly means for how we see ourselves as GIScientists.