Welcome to the International Cartographic Association
Welcome to the website of the International Cartographic AssociationGet to know the new ICA Executive Committee for the term 2023-2027
Welcome to the website of the International Cartographic Association
Get to know the new ICA Executive Committee for the term 2023-2027

Invitation to the 7th International Symposium on the History of Cartography: Mapping Empires Colonial Cartographies of Land and Sea

The ICA Commission on the History of Cartography, the ICA Commission on Topographic Mapping and the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford are happy to invite you to their joint international symposium Mapping Empires – Colonial Cartographies of Land and Sea. This is already the 7th event in a series of two-yearly symposia on the History of Cartography.

  • Date: 13–15 September 2018
  • Place: Weston Library, Oxford, UK

To explore the city, its surroundings and its cartographic heritage, optional technical and social tours are planned.

Call for Contributions

The organizers invite contributions (papers and posters) investigating the cartography of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas as influenced by cosmopolitan exploration and imperialistic activity during, but not limited to, the ‘long nineteenth century’ (mid-18th to mid-20th centuries). The rise of European hegemony coincided with a scientific turn that underpinned the evolution of topographic mapping and hydrographic charting, and  led to the emergence of thematic mapping. These colonial cartographies brought forth a rich legacy of mapping that continues to influence the aesthetics and authority of mapmaking today.

  • Deadline for submissions: 1 March 2018
  • Notification of acceptance: 31 March 2018

As with previous international symposia the organizers plan to publish accepted and presented papers and posters in the ICA series “History of Cartography” by Springer (Heidelberg et al.); for the recently published Proceedings of the previous 6th International Symposium held in Dubrovnik in October 2016 please see www.springer.com/us/book/9783319615141

For more information on the symposium and for the submission of abstracts please visit mappingempires.icaci.org

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