Home → News → Call for Papers: Conference on Mapping and the Global Imaginary, 1500-1900 Stanford University 14 - 15 February 2019
Call for Papers: Conference on Mapping and the Global Imaginary, 1500-1900 Stanford University 14 - 15 February 2019
Maps have long been used to bring imaginary places to life, from Thomas More's Utopia to J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth. But the role of the imagination in mapping extends well beyond the depiction of fantasy realms. This conference—co-organized by the Global History and Culture Centre at the University of Warwick and the History Department of Stanford University—is designed to showcase research and facilitate conversation about the role of the imagination in the cartographic enterprise writ large.
Presentations will ideally focus on a handful of particular maps, drawing chiefly on examples made between 1500 and 1900. Possible themes for exploration include:
Mapping utopias and dystopias
Projections of power and competing border claims
Recidivist cartography
Maps of alternative futures; maps of alternative pasts
Topographies of the unknown (uncharted territories)
