Overview
A collection of personal papers, some published here for the first time, this study shows the life of George Jobberns, a founding figure in university geography in New Zealand. After a period of secondary school teaching, Jobberns studied geology at what is now the University of Canterbury and lectured there throughout the 1930s in the first independent geography department in New Zealand. At a time when the emphasis for academics was on teaching rather than research, Jobberns was a pioneer in combining his life in the classroom with publishing, traveling, and attending international conferences, particularly in the United States.
Author Biography
Michael Roche is a professor of geography at Massey University. He is the author of Past Matters: Heritage and Planning History Perspectives from the Pacific Rim and has been published widely on the interrelations of society, economy, and environment in 19th- and 20th-century New Zealand, including contributions to the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, the New Zealand Historical Atlas, and Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.