This series of lectures invites a critical and fresh view on mapping, its role in the global circulation of knowledge, influence on state sovereignty and royal authority, colonialism, imperialism, national identities throughout history.
Berlin is an apt place for this topic. It has historically been a meeting point of mapping practices from all over the world. The city played a key role in the genesis of the history of cartography as a distinct branch of the history of science. It hosts a huge variety of the material culture of mapping across many institutions that illustrate how a map is strongly conditioned by space and time in which it was created (historical context), by people who created it (mapmakers), and by the audience and purpose for which it was intended (users). Map is, therefore, understood as a complex social construct representing a power of knowledge.
Germany is now a major repository of mapping efforts through history, making Berlin a perfect setting for this lecture series.
The lecture series is jointly organised by Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte and Einstein Center Chronoi.
THE LECTURE SERIES
Maps and Mapping in Global History and Culture II
22 January 2025, 6 p.m. | Panel discussion | How Plague became Globally Visible – Mapping as Method in Modern Western Medicine |
6 March 2025, 6 p.m. | Lecture with Dialogue | Sebastian Münster’s Cosmography: Making Maps and Imaging Germany |
27 March 2025, 6 p.m. | Lecture with Dialogue | |
8 April 2025, 6 p.m. | Roundtable |