There are two people who, between them, have met virtually all staff at INES for over a hundred years: Jonas Åkerman and Karl-Erik Bergsten. Their experiences, memories, and detective work form the foundation of the new book about the department’s history: A Historic Description of the Department of Geography at Lund University - With special focus on Physical Geography.
Jonas Åkerman came to the department as a student in 1967 and still teaches there today. Two weeks ago, he completed what he calls his final excursion with students.
“That’s it—it’s not sustainable to have an old man wobbling around. Sooner or later I’ll fall and ruin the whole excursion. It doesn’t work to have a teacher who stays on the bus while the others go for a walk,” says Jonas Åkerman, now 79 years old.
From 20 to 600 pages
Karl-Erik Bergsten joined the department of Geography as a student in 1923 and served as professor from 1956 to 1976. He left behind a 20-page pamphlet filled with notes and memories of colleagues he had worked with over the years.
“Those texts are the foundation of the book. Former department head Jonathan Seaquist asked me to translate them into English and expand them. It grew from 20 to 600 pages. I’ve been working more or less full-time on this since 2018,” says Jonas Åkerman.
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