Scientific discourse and the geographical work of Marion Newbigin

Abstract Marion Newbigin is known within the history of geography for her work as editor of the Scottish Geographical Magazine (1902–34), but her own considerable body of geographical writing merits further attention within contemporary historiography than has hitherto been given to it. This paper focuses on the impact of Newbigin's training in the natural sciences on her construction and representation of geography and draws on feminist critiques of science as a framework for analysing her work. Whilst adopting a linear view of the progress of science and society, gendered and generalised classes are problematised and blurred in a number of ways in Newbigin's work.