@JulietJFall@mastodon.social
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JulietJFall

@JulietJFall@mastodon.social

Professor of political & creative geography at Université de Genève (she/her), Switzerland 🇨🇭 Hoping more academics engage around here, so tooting about work, but also sewing & yodeling.
English, French, Italian. Some German. #Academic #Geographer #Géographe #PoliticalGeography #GéographiePolitique #Borders #Frontières #CreativeGeography #VisualMethods #MéthodesVisuelles #Comics #BandeDessinée #HistoryOfGeography #FeministEpistemologies #AcademicsWithCats #VintageSewingMachines #Quilting

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M0CUV, to FiberArts
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Is there anyone following me who knows about adjustments? I’ve cleaned, oiled & de-gunked a low-end machine (HobbyCraft 19s; made by Silver) but the top thread keeps getting knotted up round the bobbin mechanism. Any ideas?

JulietJFall,
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@M0CUV @Fredatron Before doing anything drastic, I always change the needle (check it’s the right way round), try fresh thread of a different brand (some machines are snobs), rethread a different bobbin (some old ones have a kink in them), re-thread everything checking the manual (because duh sometimes I do something silly), and have a cup of tea & a biscuit. If it still doesn’t work, at least you’ve had a cup of tea!

JulietJFall, to random
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The tense negotiations between Swiss universities & major private academic publishers continues, with a no-deal situation between SwissUniversities, Elsevier and Taylor&Francis starting from 1st January. The budgets involved are insane and we urgently need new models for sharing public-funded research results. It’s just nuts.

More info here: https://www.swissuniversities.ch/en/themen/digitalisierung/open-access/publisher-negotiations/elsevier

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JulietJFall, to random
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Covid cases on a rapid rise in Geneva, as witnessed by wastewater analysis (the only real tracking left), and candid observation in my workplace! Sorry, but I can't consider this to be "just a cold now" as many people around me seem to assume. Particularly as I've spent the past few weeks drawing a comic on the acute stage of the pandemic. It's still so raw.

Numbers from waste water analysis: https://www.covid19.admin.ch/fr/overview

JulietJFall, to maps French
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Superbe visite à la collection cartographique Elisée Reclus / Charles Perron à la Bibliothèque de Genève, avec nos étudiant•es de Master en géographie.

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JulietJFall, to comics
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A four-page comic exploring borders, home and belonging, in a special issue on Counter/cartographies in the journal "You are Here: The Journal of Creative Geography", ed. by Eden Kinkaid &
Cassidy Schoenfelder.
(Reference: Fall, J.J. 2023 Beating the bounds. "You are Here: The Journal of Creative Geography". Vol. XXIV; 22-24.)
Full open-access issue: https://lnkd.in/eG4z4zJC

Black and white line drawings of two people on a bike, and map outlines as background. Text: « BEATING THE BOUNDS » IS AN ANCIENT CUSTOM, OBSERVED IN PARTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES THAT INVOLVES TOURING LOCAL LANDMARKS EVERY FEW YEARS AND SWATTING THEM WITH BRANCHES OR STICKS TO MAINTAIN A SHARED MENTAL MAP OF PARISH BOUNDARIES. ARMED NOT WITH COMMUNITY BUT WLTH MAPS, PHONE APPS, GUIDEBOOKS, ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS, HISTORICAL TREATIES, BLOCKS AND FENCES, WE BEAT OUR BOUNDS.
Image shows a line drawn moveable fence with red and white plastic tape, as though stretching over a map. The state border is marked in red, and the part across the border, in France, is faded and hard to see. GEOGRAPHERS TAUGHT US THAT BODIES CONNECT THE GLOBAL AND THE INTIMATE. SO WE TRIED THINKING THROUGH OUR MOVING BODIES, MAPPING OUR CHANGING WORLD, EXPERIENCING NEW DIVISIONS AND CONNECTIONS IN THE LANDSCAPE. WE REDREW OUR MENTAL MAPS, FOLLOWING THE LINES.
Image shows two people on bicycles, drawn from the back, as they contemplate a closed road, barred by large concrete blocks. Lower down, a girl blows bubbles across a fence. The bubbles turn into red dots on a map, showing the closed and open border passage points attached to a no entry road sign. MAYBE WE HAD NEVER TRULY EXPLORED OUR WORLD BEFORE THE PANDEMIC. MAYBE WE HAD JUST TAKEN OUR MOBILITY AND PRIVILEGE FOR GRANTED AND HAD SIMPLY ACCEPTED THE LINES DRAWN ON OFFICIAL MAPS? THE CRISIS RESHAPED OUR LANDSCAPES TEMPORARILY CLOSING, THEN REOPENING, THE BORDER CROSSINGS. IT MADE US WANT T0 GO AND BEAR WITNESS. IN DOING S0, THE LINES REDREW US. THREE YEARS LATER, OUR BODIES ARE STILL BEATING, MAPPING OUR LIVES AND LANDSCAPES ALONG THE LINES.

JulietJFall, to Facebook
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So, FacePalm is wanting Europeans to pay or continue to have our data stolen. Fair enough. If it removed the endless rubbish in the timeline and let me see my old friends & family’s posts then even 12.-Swiss Francs a month might make sense, but in fact it’s still going to be totally enshittificated…
Now, how to bring everyone over here?

stuartelden, to intellectualhistory
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John Brewer, Volcanic: Vesuvius in the Age of Revolutions - Yale University Press, November 2023
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300272666/volcanic/

@geography @intellectualhistory

JulietJFall,
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Such fabulous book suggestions, as ever, Stuart!

@stuartelden @geography @intellectualhistory

stuartelden, to intellectualhistory
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David N. Livingstone, The Empire of Climate: A History of an Idea - Princeton University Press, 2024
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691236704/the-empire-of-climate

@geography @intellectualhistory

JulietJFall,
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@stuartelden @geography @intellectualhistory
Oh, thank you for sharing, Stuart! That looks fascinating. (Even if we have to wait until 2024 to read it...)

JulietJFall, to random French
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Très, très inquiétant…

“Victoire du parti populiste opposé à l'aide à Kiev lors des législatives en Slovaquie”

https://www.rts.ch/info/monde/14356184-victoire-du-parti-populiste-oppose-a-laide-a-kiev-lors-des-legislatives-en-slovaquie.html

JulietJFall, to ChatGPT French
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L'université de Genève produit de plus en plus de documents et des lignes directrices intéressants sur l'utilisation de l'IA dans l'enseignement supérieur, au-delà de la simple chasse à la fraude. De nombreuses discussions spécifiques sont également en cours au sein de chaque faculté. Sacré challenge, tout de même!
https://view.genial.ly/642e8b666cba7a0011ef4154

@academicchatter

JulietJFall, to geopolitics
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Want to see atmospheric yet often really mundane border photos? My online 🇨🇭🇫🇷 walking journal is moving here, as I’m enjoying this new online atmosphere. (I’m freezing new posts on Twatter & just ‘name-holding’ my account.)
Link to last post on one of the longer earlier threads:
https://twitter.com/julietjfall/status/1571476764269871104?s=46&t=9RfIT2qARWZk8ZBEIES9Vw

JulietJFall,
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A walk of contrasts today, with many brambles, some light trespassing into a gravel quarry, pretty countryside and industrial stretches between Bardonnex & Croix-de-Rozon.

The author’s spouse is disappearing into a ditch of nettles attempting to get close to an invisible line in a rural landscape.
The photo is taken from the opposite bank of a river, in France, looking through dappled light on wooded trees onto a field and border stone. A person is gazing through field glasses at the following border stone.
The author’s spouse is walking along a very busy road.

JulietJFall,
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Anyone care to sponsor me to buy this abandoned border post? This would be my dream drawing studio for finishing my border comic! Maybe I need a fundraising project here, or a spare 450’000 Swiss Francs, or a real bestseller? Hmmm…

Walking under the watchful eyes of security cameras.
The international border was moved to accommodate this new motorway.
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JulietJFall,
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1970s TV archive on the Swiss border and border guards in Geneva, and on how rivers and bodies of water were used to help trace the borderline (weren't TV programmes slow paced back then? Rather refreshing!): https://www.rts.ch/archives/tv/information/la-suisse-est-belle/11280287-geneve-frontiere-deau.html

JulietJFall,
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Not walking today, but exploring the state archives, and the Mappe Sarde dating back to when parts of what is now the Canton of Geneva where part of other kingdoms. Just beautiful to see the mini painted landscapes, in still-fresh watercolours, showing places we have walked.

1744 map from the Geneva state archive
The original map from which the first image was copied, from Geneva state archive
The title of the 1744 map, showing the spelling St Jullien in pink and blue watercolours

JulietJFall,
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Sunday morning wandering and cycling around between past and present, in slight drizzle, chasing border stones & French boulangeries.

In case you missed it, a short comic stemming from this walking & drawing border project is mentioned here: https://mastodon.social/@JulietJFall/111427226794927481

The same place as the previous image, only photographed today.
Swiss/French border stone 62A at the Bardonnex motorway border passage point, photographed close up, showing the card Geneva flag on one side.
Swiss/French border stone 61A near to the Bardonnex motorway border passage point, in the woods, covered in light lichen. It dates to 1993 when the border was moved to allow for the construction of the new motorway. The side showing the letter S, for Switzerland, is visible. Autumn leaves rest on the ground.

JulietJFall,
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

More archive work today, seeing the original documents & accompanying maps of the Treaty of Turin establishing part of what is now the 🇨🇭🇫🇷state border, formerly Geneva & Savoie/Sardinia. Just gorgeous to see it in person, and wander across the pages. Although these docs have been scanned, seeing them in person and gazing at them at an angle, allows you to see the amazing artistry (those little tree shadows!).

An extract of a hand painted watercolor map from 1816 showing the border area passing through the village of Soral.
Map extract showing lots of tiny hand painted trees in small groups, with amazing detail.
The original Treaty of Turin, bound in parchment paper with a special seal dangling from it in a silver box and tassels. The author’s hand is visible.

JulietJFall,
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Term-time is ended, the archives are closed, and we are back outside celebrating the beginning of the holidays by walking! Walking the wiggly borderlines along the Foron river, where the border is unusually not in the middle of the stream but along the right (Swiss) bank. France has full rights over the water. Interestingly, 🇨🇭and 🇫🇷 haven’t formally agreed on the exact location of the border here and discussions are ongoing.

Birderstone 99 on one side of a bridge, with a wiggly line on top indicating that the river follows the stream.
Information sign about the practical effects of the border on local farmers
French sign saying “Service Fiscal attention passage interdit” and assorted barriers stopping vehicular passage, but open to pedestrians

JulietJFall,
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We wandered on along a charming path in the evening sun, enjoying the usual mix of contrasting landscapes on either side of the line: small villas on the Swiss side & rather charmless apartment blocks in France. I love spotting the immediately-recognizable former border posts, often now converted, built in the 1920s & mostly designed by Marc Camoletti: the architect who built the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire.

A big G for Geneva on borderstone 100, on the Foron
Former border post architecture, now converted to a private house.
Borderstone 101 in a thick mess of brambles and trees, close to the river

JulietJFall,
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We ended up in Thônex, just after a beautiful borderstone showing the Sardaigne/Savoie arms, and the Geneva key & eagle. Home for tea!

Borderstone with Geneva flag carved in stone, outlined in black paint, on a busy border crossing, on a main road.
The other (now French) side of the border stone, and the date 1975
A smaller stone, also from 1975, laid following a small border change linked to the construction of the large border passage point. A key point for commuters from France, coming to work in Geneva. Urban landscape, next to a metal fence, with the Salève mountain in the background.

JulietJFall,
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My, my, guess what we’ve been doing today for a blissfully sunny & warm Boxing Day? Unseasonably warm, but just perfect for hopping across and along the 🇨🇭🇫🇷 border, this time near Jussy. Four hours to walk from border stones 120 to 155, and back to the starting point, with two extra bonus old ones incongruously moved from elsewhere & reused rather oddly to mark the entrance to a property.

Border stone 132 in a field
Border stone 137, sawn down to ground level to allow the road to be widened. Field next to it, Jura mountains on the horizon, capped in snow. Sunshine.
Border stone 147 by a brook the marks the border, low undergrowth. Sunshine. Moss covering the stone that is lit up by the sun.

JulietJFall,
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This stretch of our long ongoing border walk saw us traipsing along paths, mostly on the Swiss side, and sometimes crossing muddy fields, digging in brambles looking for border stones and wandering in unexpected stretches of mossy woods as we traced our way along the 🇨🇭🇫🇷border. This was an old section of the border of what was the Mandement de Jussy, belonging to the city of Geneva before the canton was made into one contiguous unit in 1815.

Borderstone 154 seen in close up from above, with sinuous border line and the author’s hand resting on it.
Low sun on the horizon illuminating moss growing on trees
The borderline follows the brook, with sunny moss growing on fallen logs

JulietJFall,
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Yesterday, we got chased down the mountain we were staying on by a blocked toilet (not fun in an isolated chalet in a snowstorm!), so back to walking the 🇨🇭 🇫🇷 border. A lovely but VERY muddy walk today, back near Jussy.

First: a curiosity. A house built using recycled 1754 border stones, removed in 1798 (thank you French Revolution!) during the short-lived creation of the French Département du Léman.

Photo a window in an old stone house using border stones, with the G for Geneva clearly visible
Facade of an old stone house, showing that all the windows are made from border stones, showing the G for Geneva or S for Savoie/Sardaigne. Lovely old golden stones.

JulietJFall,
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The border first followed a stream, then a series of extremely muddy canals dug through the boggy forest. We walked very slowly, hopping from log to log, as the paths turned to brooks and the stones became islands, fired on by our delightfully pointless quest to find all the stones. Geneva felt like an island surrounded by boggy lands.
A lovely day in the sun with three of us walking for a change, fired on by biscuits and chocolates.

Another border stone by a path of water in the winter woodland, with number 168 on one side.
Yet another stone by a stream, with a large S on one side (Savoie). The stone is standing in water, as the whole landscape is boggy.
The border stone is actually surrounded by water on all four sides, as the river has carved around it. The border passes through the middle of the stream.

JulietJFall,
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

Sometimes, my walks lead to unexpected marvels. It started out today as a quest to find old border buildings near Moillesulaz (🇨🇭) / Moëllesulaz (🇫🇷) but they were all apparently flattened & replaced with a shiny new (& super useful!) cross-border tram & modern blocks of flats or administrative buildings. So, a frustrating start if nostalgia is your thing. But what happened next will surprise you, as they say...

The same location as the previous photo, in which the road has been hugely broadened with new tram lines separated from the road traffic
Same location, on the Swiss side.

JulietJFall,
@JulietJFall@mastodon.social avatar

All history was not erased. The city held on to other memories a little further down the street: Irène Gubier (1897-1995), a woman of remarkable bravery, member of the French Resistance during WWII, is remembered by her little cross-border house standing tall. It was used to transport people & messages during the war. She was deported by the Nazis to Ravensbrück but survived to live to 97. She is remembered on both sides of the border.

The simple stone cottage, with a border stone at one angle of the house. The house is in France, but the back door opens into Switzerland.
The sign on the house laying out biographical details for Irene Gubier
The little house seen from the front, next to the river.

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