Careering and academic mobility: George B. Cressey's China, 1923–1963

Abstract

George B. Cressey attempted to write a new geography of China, and served the United States and China as a missionary, geographer, and sinologist from the 1920s–1960s. Drawing on the archival materials of Cressey housed in the United States and China, this article examines academic mobility as a form of careering to focus on the international endeavors of a rarely recognized American geographer. I argue that the rejection of Cressey began with the Chinese Nationalist and the U.S. governments in the 1940s, and culminated in Communist China in the 1950s, entangled in political turmoil and debates over environmental determinism. This article diversifies the writing of the history of geography by breaking the dualism of centre and periphery following Cressey's career trajectory. The work also demonstrates the complexity of transnational academic mobility and its entanglements with politics.