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Mark Ravina lecture "Rethinking Historical Maps for the 21st Century: A Quantitative Perspective on Japan’s kuniezu"


Kyoto and Online, Japan
Over the past 30 years, historians have reconceptualized the history of political space. We now recognize that discrete, exacting borders are largely a creation of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, not a timeless or natural phenomenon. Our historical maps, however, do not reflect this new understanding, and draw all borders as clear, exact lines. In Japan’s kuniezu, for example, long stretches of provincial borders are described as undetermined. How can we accurately map vague borders? Relying on quantitative methods, this paper engages with that question as both a conceptual and a practical problem for digital mapping.
Speaker: Mark Ravina (University of Texas at Austin)
Discussants:
  • Richard Pegg (MacLean Collection)
  • D. Max Moerman (Columbia University)
  • Mario Cams (University of Oslo)
  • Elke Papelitzky (KU Leuven)
For online attendance, registration before 7 June through these form.
Venue: Seminar Room 1, International Research Center for Japanese Studies
Language: English
E-mail: kenkyo@nichibun.ac.jp
Time schedule: 8:00-10:00 CET
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