The New Area Studies Research Centre, the East Centre and the School of Global Development at the University of East Anglia are calling for papers between 5000-8000 words to be presented at a symposium on 2nd and 3rd October 2024 on the topic of Imagined Geographies: from Past to Future. It will take place at UEA, Norwich, UK, in person and online, and will address the topic from a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary perspective. We plan to publish selected papers from the symposium in a special edition of New Area Studies.

‘Imagined Geographies’ may include but are not limited to:

• attachment to place

• identity

• the perceptions of homeland imagined or real

• the idea of country, nation, borders, fronts, zones or edge lands

• and liminal places

Papers and presentations may address, but are not limited to:

• colonisation/decolonisation

• the geographies of marginalisation

• narratives and local voice, indigeneity, agency, the post-colonial

• the intersection of colonial to contemporary knowledge

• knowledge-making, production, and professional ignorance

We are pleased to consider proposals from any disciplinary perspective: Anthropological, Geographical, Literary, Historical, Political Science/International Relations, Sociological, Philosophical etc. We particularly welcome original, cross-disciplinary topics and approaches, showcasing innovation, evolving, or new methodologies.

The keynote speaker at our event will be Professor Edith W. Clowes, Brown-Forman Professor, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia. Her forthcoming book on Shredding the Map: Imagined Geographies of Revolutionary Russia speaks directly to issues of place consciousness and place-based identity.

Enquiries and proposals for papers (no more than 250 words) should be addressed to Professor Susan Hodgett S.Hodgett@uea.ac.uk by 1st June 2024.

There is no fee for the symposium, online or in person, but in person symposium attendees are responsible for their own travel, accommodation and expenses. The organisers are unable to provide support on this occasion.