This program will be held in-person at the Newberry and livestreamed on Zoom. Additional registration, schedule, and speaker information will be released as the event nears.
Mapping from Mexico: New Narratives for the History of Cartography
The 2025 Nebenzahl Lectures continue to promote new thinking about the history of maps and mapmaking by considering how histories of Mexican cartography can rewrite common narratives and popular assumptions. For instance, Hernán Cortes’ 1524 map of Tenochtitlan circulated throughout Europe and sparked widespread European interest in the Americas, even influencing how Europeans understood the relationship between themselves and the broader world. Yet despite the prominent role mapping in Mexico has played in the history of cartography, these histories are often told from a European perspective. What happens to the history of maps and mapping when we orient our stories from within Mexico looking out toward the rest of the world? To name one example, how do the stories we tell, methodological assumptions we make, and categories we define about maps and map history change when we treat sites of production and reception in Mexico—from Mexico City, Oaxaca, and Puebla to the borderlands—with the same specificity map history has given to European publishing centers?
The 2025 series is accompanied by a series of workshops focused on the materiality of maps and a map fair. By reframing the history of mapping from the perspective of Mexico, and introducing new ways to engage with maps and map history, these lectures and workshops bring innovative work on the history of maps and mapping to a broad audience.
Lecture Schedule
TBD
Cost and Registration
This program is free and open to all. Advance registration required.
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