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CFP: Mapping Asia: Cartography and the Construction of Territoriality. Centre for Transcultural Studies and the Gotha Perthes Collection, Erfurt University, 24th–25th November 2022.

3. April 2022

This conference will explore cartography and the construction and contestation of territoriality in Asia from the late eighteenth to the twentieth century. In particular we seek to answer the question of how ideas of territoriality were cartographically produced, circulated and interpreted within Asia and between Europe and Asia.

The conference is part of the project Cartographies of Africa and Asia (1800–1945). A Project for the Digitization of Maps of the Perthes Collection Gotha (KarAfAs). KarAfAs is a co-authored endeavour of the Centre for Transcultural Studies at Gotha and the Perthes Collection of the Gotha Research Library, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. By digitising the maps of the Perthes collection in Gotha, we intend to inspire future projects which see questions of territoriality and spatiality in a fresh light, utilising the source material held at the Perthes Collection. Participants will be invited to a tour of the highlights of the collection’s cartographic material on Asia.

We invite papers that address any of the following themes:

  • The circulation of cartographic knowledge and the territorial imagination
  • The role of Asian and European cartography in nation and state formation
  • Cartography and the making of colonial and post-colonial borderlands
  • Mapping and counter-mapping
  • The construction of the idea of ‘Asia’ and its boundaries

We welcome papers written on any geographical area in Asia which deal with the intersection of cartography and territoriality from the eighteenth to the twentieth century.

We especially encourage applications from groups underrepresented in the academy. We can offer small grants to reimburse the costs of accommodation and regional travel, with priority given to early-career scholars.

Please submit abstracts (in English, up to a maximum of 250 words) together with a short bio to frances.omorchoe@uni-erfurt.de by Sunday, 17th April. We will inform applicants of the outcome of their applications by the end of April.

Send inquiries to Claudia Berger at claudia.berger@uni-erfurt.de or Frances O’Morchoe at frances.omorchoe@uni-erfurt.de.