Emerging Geographies: Mapping, Tracking, and Tracing to be held on:
April 18, 2008
Discussants: Donna Haraway, James Ferguson, and Donald Moore; University
of California, Santa Cruz Department of Anthropology Graduate Student
Conference
Maps of worlds are often depicted as stories already told, already
written. If we acknowledge these geographies as emerging and in process,
how can we map, track, and trace these worlds as they become entangled
with and produce various scales of time and space?
Instead of assuming the regions of Cold War geography, emerging
geographies encourage scholarship that investigates how the world looks
from various locations and “out of the way” places to understand
geographies as formed and contingent. We are interested in how
histories are lived in the present, how they shape our current worlds,
and are alive within these worlds. Emerging geographies track the long
durée and uncover alternative and layered histories. This tracking
requires an engagement with histories that pays attention to complex,
situated entanglements and the significance of details. Emerging
geographies map the active ways in which social landscapes are
constructed and regions are made. They ask: how do geographies come into
being?
We are looking for papers from advanced graduate students and posters
from all graduate students that describe and analyze emerging
geographies for a one-day graduate student conference at the Department
of Anthropology, UC Santa Cruz. The deadline for submissions has been
extended to February 20, 2008. Distinguished scholars across the
disciplines such as Donna Haraway, James Ferguson, and Donald Moore will
comment upon the papers and convene discussions.
Examples of possible paper or poster topics include:
• In the early 20th century, evangelical missionaries divided
Guatemala into spheres of influence in order to avoid
inter-denominational competition. What legacies might remain of those
geographies?
• The state of India mobilizes a 500 million year-old geological
connection between their nation and Antarctica to argue for the
modern-day presence of a research station within an Antarctic protected
area. How are sciences being strategically used to make geopolitical claims?
• Jews in the US, Europe, and South Africa use DNA evidence to assert
that Lemba people are a lost tribe of Israel and part of a Jewish
Diaspora. How does this evidence situate people in the world?
We encourage submissions that de-center human agency in the making of
emergent geographies. The deadline for abstracts has been extended to
February 20, 2008. Please email a one-page abstract to:
emerginggeographies@xxxxxxxxxx
For more information, please visit:
http://emerginggeographies.googlepages.com
Midnight University with the theme “Navigating Maps”—to be held on the
same day at UCSC—is affiliated with this conference.