Archive: Calls

• Making the map

Making the map: cross-border and intercultural representations from Ancient history to today
Mulhouse – 20, 21, 22 May 2019
Université de Haute-Alsace

The conference aims to reflect on and debate the cartography of transboundary and intercultural phenomena. Through an international lens, and drawing from multiple disciplines, it ought to contribute to the conceptualisation of maps independent of political borders by inviting us to think about them across three axes: time (How compatible have intercultural phenomena and cartographic enterprises been throughout history?), space (what are the possible approaches when mapping intercultural or cross-border phenomena depending on the area of study, of creation and of diffusion of maps?), and method (how/why can making maps show such phenomena?).

Deadline 30 November 2018
See details in the Calls in German, French and English in the attachments and on the site du CRESAT
https://www.cresat.uha.fr/produire-la-carte/

• The Arab World Geographer

CALL FOR PAPERS

3rd International Conference of The Arab World Geographer (AWG)

Topic: The Arab Encounter with Africa: Past, Present and Future

In Zanzibar, Tanzania, January 8-10, 2019

www.arabworldgepgrapher.org

The AWG will host its third International Conference from the 8th to 10th of January 2019 in Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania. Social science scholars and other interested persons are welcome to submit abstracts for a 20-25 minute presentation and participate in field trips in this fascinating island where Arabs and Moslems contributed to culture and society for many centuries in the past and continue to do so today. The organizers of the conference are aware of this short notice and somewhat more unusual location in the Indian Ocean. However, we are hoping that the choice of time and place will be compensated for attendees by the fact that it will be the summer season in Zanzibar in January, and for those coming from the Northern Hemisphere it will also be a chance to escape the winter and enjoy a memorable break, combining an academic conference with a stay in a uniquely intriguing tropical environment of the Zanzibar Archipelago. The conference venue will be in Stone Town, also known as Mji Mkongwe (Swahili for “old town”) which is the old part of Zanzibar City. The AWG wishes to offer this opportunity to explore an important research topic for geographers and other interested individuals supporting and contributing to our journal. Select conference papers will be considered for a special double issue of the AWG.

Those interested can submit a 250-word abstract by 25 November 2018 to the Editor-in-Chief of the AWG (Ghazi-Walid Falah) at falah@uakron.edu. Abstracts will be reviewed and once accepted, authors will be asked to pay a registration fee of US$250 (Early-bird registration ends November 30, 2018). Registration after November 30th is US$450. Guest registration: US$15. [Guest registration is designed for the spouse, partner, or family members of the registrant]. Participants will be responsible for their own expenses (flight and hotel).

• Societies and Spaces in Contact

Enclosed please find the information and call for papers for a
Conference on Societies and Spaces in Contact

that will be held in Portorož-Portorose (Slovenia) 16-20 September 2019
It is organized by Milan Bufon , Scien and research Centre Koper, Slovenia.

Papers should consider the following main Conference Themes:
– European national and regional minorities: from territorialities of exclusion to territorialities of inclusion
– Policies for cultural diversity and social integration within a multilevel decisional context
– Migrants and “new minorities”: factor of conflict or development potential?
– Spatial and social transformations in contact areas: towards an integrated approach
– Cross-border cooperation and planning: past experiences and future trends
– The perception of the “other”: mental maps and narratives
– Cultural diversity, multiculturalism and education: language policies and societal building

Two excursions in the Istrian region and in Trieste-Trst (Italy)
Keynote speakers are Tove H. Malloy (Europa-Universität Flensburg) and Colin H. Williams (Cardiff University)

Abstract submission between 1 November 2018 and 30 April 2019

See pdf for more information.

• GEOGRAPHIES OF IDENTITIES AND IMAGINATIONS

International Symposium on the History of Geographical Thought
GEOGRAPHIES OF IDENTITIES AND IMAGINATIONS
University College Dublin, Belfield (Dublin 4, Republic of Ireland)
10-12 July 2019

FIRST CIRCULAR – CALL FOR PAPERS
Deadline 14 December 2018

Convenors
Dr Federico Ferretti (UCD School of Geography); Dr Arlene Crampsie (UCD School of Geography)

Symposium Themes
Although inserted in the programme of the periodical symposia organised by the IGU Commission on the History of Geography, this conference is also designed as a tribute to Anne Buttimer (1938-2017), one of the first cofounders
and inspirations of our Commission and an international leading figure in geography. Buttimer’s archives were bequeathed to UCD School of Geography, where they are the core of ongoing and projected scholarly
endeavours. Therefore, the research problematics addressed by Buttimer, like ethics and values in geography, the importance of life experiences and the cultural implications of the relations between humans and environments
among others will be the main focus of the symposium. Additionally, some of the topics that Buttimer addressed, such as the geographical invention of national identities and imaginations, are very important for present-day
scholarly and political debates in Ireland, given that 2019 falls in the middle of the period 2016-2022, that is the second part of the ‘decade of centenaries’, commemorating the steps which led to Irish independence and
resonating with current discussions on geographies of anti-colonialism.
Therefore, we especially welcome contributions on:
 Geographies of nation building and of the invention of national identities and traditions
 National, regional, transnational and supranational geographical imaginations
 Geographies of (‘internal’ and ‘external’) colonialism
 Geographies of anti-colonialism
 Historical geographies of Ireland and of the ‘British Isles’
 Biography, autobiography and geography
 Geographies of lived spaces and life worlds
 Humans and environments
 Critical and humanistic approaches to geography
 Ethics and values in geography
 Sources in historical geography and the history of geography: between oral histories and archives
 Any other topic in the history of geography (to be included in open sessions)

Abstract Submission: please submit an abstract (of not more than 250 words) along with your name, institutional
affiliation and email address to federico.ferretti@ucd.ie and arlene.crampsie@ucd.ie by December 14th 2018.

• Call for Session Proposals – EUGEO 2019

Call for Session Proposals – EUGEO 2019 – 15-18 May 2019 Galway, Ireland

Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to announce that the call for session proposals for the up-coming EUGEO 2019 Congress in conjunction with the 51st Conference of Irish Geographers is now open. The deadline for the submission of proposed sessions is Friday November 30th 2018. Session proposals can be uploaded here: https://www.eugeo2019.eu/submissions

The theme for the 2019 EUGEO Congress is ‘Re-Imagining Europe’s Future Society and Landscapes’ and we invite sessions on this theme (and beyond) from all areas of the Discipline.
The conference will take place at the National University of Ireland Galway from May 15th – 18th (inclusive) and will include a series of keynotes, networking and social events throughout the four-day period. Some highlights include a Welcome Reception on May 15th and conference dinner on May 17th. Galway is an ideal location for the Congress; a vibrant city, full of rich cultural heritage and a gateway to many sites of geographical significance (e.g. Connemara and the Burren). Further details are available on the conference website: https://www.eugeo2019.eu/
The conference will be chaired by Dr Frances Fahy and Dr Kathy Reilly (Geography, NUI Galway) and the theme reflects on the centrality of the concepts of society and landscape within the Discipline of Geography. EUGEO 2019 in conjunction with the 51st Conference of Irish Geographers will offer participants the opportunity to reflect on and re-imagine futures within the geographical boundary of Europe and beyond. We invite session proposals reflective of the over-arching theme with a view to attracting a wide variety of geographers with a range of interest and expertise representative of Geography’s diversity.

KEY DATES AND TIMELINES
• Monday 3rd Sept:  Registration and Call for Sessions Open
• Friday 30th November: Call for Sessions Closes
• Monday 3rd December: Call for Papers Opens
• Friday 1st February 2019: Call for Papers Closes;  Early-bird Registration Closes
• Friday 15th March 2019: Provisional Programme Published

• Borders in the Americas conference

“Borders in the Americas” conference . Versions in French, Spanish and Portuguese also attached (4 official languages)

Location: Grenoble
Date: June 11-13, 2019
October 31, 2018: Extended deadline.
The application is to consist of a 300-word abstract of the paper; a 100-word biographical statement will also be included. Applications are to be sent at the following address: bordersinamericas.2019@gmail.com

Comité organisateur/Organizing Committee/ Comité Organizador : Université Grenoble-Alpes + Université d’Orléans, France
Anne-Laure Amilhat-Szary, Gregory Benedetti, Pierre-Alexandre Beylier, Eric Tabuteau

Call for Papers (see attached file for other languages)
In the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, many analysts and experts argued that the world had reached the “end of history” [Fukuyama, 1992] and that regional and local organizations and free trade agreements (among which the European Union appeared to be a model of integration) signaled the emergence of a world without borders. Yet, thirty years later, the reality seems to be altogether different. Today, it is clear that “borders are back” [Amilhat Szary, 2006], [Foucher, 2016], [Ferguson, 2017]. One of the most telling symbols is the multiplication of “border walls”, the number of which increased from fifteen in 1989, to more than sixty in 2016 [Vallet, 2016]. These walls are the manifestation of a “qualitative transformation” of borders [Podescu, 2011] and the symbols of a “rebordering phenomenon” [Ibid, 3], [Van Houtoum, 2004]. However, their return appears under different forms, whether as a concrete consolidation, or an intensification of control and surveillance activities. Conversely, these borders may also be challenged by separatist and other resistance movements, as the most recent examples of Catalonia and Kurdistan demonstrate. What is new is the fact that these transformations have granted border a new function of “sorting out fluxes”, through “differentiated treatments” [Amilhat-Szary, 2015].
Whether these borders are challenged, violated, transcended, consolidated, or integrated, they remain necessarily at the heart of the political debate. This symposium – which is the first of a series entitled “Borders, spaces, and power(s)” – will focus on a specific geographic area: the Americas. Because the Americas were colonized by European powers, they all share the specificity of having been shaped in order to “organize” the New World [Podescu, 2011, 8]. To be more precise, they combine in a surprising way two forms of territorial appropriation: one that derives from a logic of zonal colonizing conquest (frontier), the other from a desire of worldwide networking in a Western perspective of space (boundary) [Perrier Bruslé, 2007]. They convey an exogenous dimension, which can have implications for the different spaces and communities that are being crossed by these borders, whether it be in terms of legitimacy or identity. Beyond their colonial past, the Americas have shared another common point since the 1990s: as part of the globalization process, they have set up trade agreements like NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) in North America or Mercosur in South America, in order to foster better regional integration. These agreements have put forward a particular vision of the border concept, a border which appears more as a “resource” than a “stigma” [Amilhat- Szary, 2015, 85]. At a local level, people involved have a different point of view about the possibility to enhance the peripheral territories where they live and develop innovative para-diplomatic initiatives. On the American continent, where some regions were hit by recurring border conflicts in the 19th century, and where some borders are still contested today (especially in Central America), integration has been a “factor of stabilization” [Medina, 2009, 41] without erasing internal geopolitical tensions which sometimes go beyond the border, endangering the continental stability.
Nevertheless, the 9/11 attacks – and international terrorism overall, which had existed in Latin America since the Buenos Aires attacks in the 1880s – have redefined the role of borders, contributing to their “refunctionalization”. The resurgence of a Fortress America [Alden, 2008], [Andreas, 2003], [Noble, 2004] has been extensively documented regarding the United States, but the phenomenon of “rebordering” also concerns Latin American borders, yet in a more ambivalent way, since they are caught in a contradictory process of “dismantling and construction” [Machado De Oliveira, 2009, 19]. As some countries have responded to terrorism by closing their borders, others, especially in Central America, have taken a different path toward opening borders [Medina, 2009, 138]. In this region, one observes an uncommon policy which reinterprets the accepted trends in terms of regulation of borders. For instance, one can think of the unprecedented development of security devices on the Brazilian borders, without questioning the growth of international exchanges, whether they be legal or illegal (smuggling, narco-trafficking…) [Dorfman, 2014], [Dorfman et al, 2017].
However, it is almost impossible to define a common dynamic to the borders of the Americas as their role evolves from one country to the next, and even from one region to the next [Machado De Oliveira, 2009, 20]. On the contrary, these borders are characterized by their “immense variety,” especially in Latin America where they are numerous. Whether it is “distant borders” separating marginal regions which turn their backs on the borders (Argentina/Chile, Paraguay/Brazil…), “erratic borders” characterized by illegal cross-border bonds as is the case in newly urbanized areas (Costa Rica/Nicaragua, Mexico/Guatemala), or “vibrating borders,” the dynamism of which derives from dense populations and numerous comparative advantages (Brazil/Uruguay, Peru/Ecuador, Mexico/the United States), or even “formal borders,” which are regions that are instrumentalized by the central authority with a view of promoting their “dynamization” or countering illegal trafficking, according to a top-down approach (Chile/Argentina, Haiti/the Dominican Republic), the types of borders are varied and wide [Machado De Oliveira, 2009, 28-30]. Different levels of cross-border cooperation are being shaped and the present symposium will, we hope, offer the opportunity to refine this typology more accurately. In a global context of an increase of theoretical border studies, it may be interesting to wonder whether a continental approach can provide an assessment on regional specificities, as well as bring about an original epistemological effort [Mezzadra, 2013], [Nail, 2016], [Parker et al, 2012], [Wastl-Walter, 2012].

The symposium invites participants to broach the various dynamics which prevail in American borders, as well as the mutations and transformations these borders have undergone in the last decade, through different approaches:

-Papers can deal with the policies that have been put in place since 2001, especially with regards to the phenomenon of rebordering which is at stake on a global level. How do countries manage their border to address this new context? Submissions can concentrate both on the mechanisms themselves and on their implications for cross-border relations. Case studies and comparative approaches will be particularly welcomed, especially when they try to go beyond regional syntheses and bridge the gap between the two Americas … [Brunet-Jailly, 2007], [Konrad et al, 2008].

-Submissions can also analyze how American borders evolve, from an opening process to a closing one, “functionalizing and dysfunctionalizing” [Foucher, 1991], [Pradeau, 1994, 16-17] in order to study these dynamics both on a small scale and a large scale. Historical approaches, which renew the question of territorialized border conflict and multiply the reading scales, demonstrating efforts to make national and contradictory nationalist narratives evolve, will also be appreciated [Parodi Revoredo et al, 2014].

– More largely, participants are invited to study cross-border relations in order to determine the type of cross-border cooperation that is being shaped between different countries. Is there any kind of complementarity that can be established on both sides of an international border? On a smaller scale, how can this process give birth to urban pairs and cross-border regions? Comparative approaches will be welcomed.

-Participants can also explore the issue of continental integration within NAFTA and MERCOSUR, but also at the level of both Americas (UNASUR). How can we evaluate these regional blocs which presented themselves as models in the 1990s? How do the member countries perceive their relations along the borders in this context? How do integration and rebordering coexist for that matter? What are the resistance movements against these processes, how do they express themselves politically and at which levels?

– Papers on illegal phenomena which have been developing in the Americas are also welcome: drug trafficking, illegal immigration, cartels… The reasons why these different types of trafficking developed, as well as their consequences and implications for local populations and the policies put in place to fight them, are among the many angles that can be chosen by participants.

-We will also be interested in “bottom-up” research on the border [Runford, 2014]: how do regional borders inhabitants interact with international norms they are in contact with? The border concept being an “identity marker” [Piermay, 2005, 206], one can scrutinize the relations between the notions of identity, territory and border. What are the interactions and identities which emerge from these cross-border relations? How do individuals develop in relation with the border? Are there any other “Third Nations” [Dear, 2013, 71] which have emerged as we can notice along the Mexican/American border? The issue is particularly relevant in some regions of Central America where the “state predated the nation” [Medina, 2009, 38]. From then on, what has been the role of borders in creating a form of “national cohesion” [Ibid]? Which forms of political representations are being set up by border communities? In this perspective, the permeability of borders can be discussed as well: do transnational social movements transcend border through arts, culture, the media? One of the dimensions of border identities building being related with the pre-Colombian history of the continent, we will also dedicate an important place to the interpretation of the border- building by local populations [Nates Cruz, 2013].

-A cross-examination of border crossing and an evaluation of their growing human costs will also be welcomed [De Leon et al, 2015]. The goal will be to understand intracontinental fluxes, which are linked with working mobility, but also how the Americas integrate their migratory strategies with an increasing number of people who try to reach North America from Africa, crossing the Atlantic Ocean, using the same slave itineraries, before embarking on longer and more dangerous paths toward the North [Tapia Ladino, 2014].

– The issue of maritime borders can also be broached since their boundaries raise tensions, particularly in Central America [Medina, 2009, 40]. It raises the question of the external borders of the continent, especially on the Arctic front [Nicol et al, 2009]. It opens up on a more generic environmental dimension of border questions [Wadewitz, 2012]. This question takes a surprising dimension in the Americas, where, for a majority of people, international limits cross zones of low-density populations.

– The issue of internal borders and more specifically urban borders can be analyzed [Chevalier et al, 2004]. Indeed, with the shared hemispheric experience of neoliberal economic development, cities in the Americas have become borderlands, with both formal and informal borders established and policed on behalf of the wealthy and other “gentrifiers.” The dispossession [Harvey, 2008] of American cities from long-term residents of all classes by the wealthy, aided by representatives in government, has become a common phenomenon from San Francisco to Sao Paolo. Papers dealing with the dispossession of American cities are welcome. How have urban borders been imposed by governments, municipalities? How has it been met by long-term residents? What forms of political, social and cultural resistance have emerged?

– Border spaces being places in constant evolution, where aesthetic expression and imaginaries are rapidly being recomposed [Rodney, 2017] [Amilhat-Szary, 2014], we will also be interested in performances that happen throughout the continent, not only on the more mediatized border spaces.

Even though the symposium focusses primarily on geography and geopolitics, it can be defined as a transdisciplinary event, which encourages all sorts of approaches, whether it be in geography, history, political science, international relations, sociology, anthropology or cultural studies. Participants are also invited to use multidisciplinary methodological approaches.

• IGU Regional Conference 2018 – EXTENDED DEADLINE

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED

Visit the IGU website to consult the commissions, study groups and sessions list.

IMPORTANT

Before submitting an abstract, you must register online, pay all fees and receive your abstract submission code. All abstract submissions must be made through the IGU-CAG-NCGE Online Submission Platform.

SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT

THE REGISTRATION TO THE NORTHERN EXCURSION IS NOW OPEN!

For more information regarding the field excursions, please visit the IGU website

• IGU 2018 Quebec – special CPG sessions

• IGU Thematic conference in Moscow

IGU Thematic Conference dedicated to the centennial of the Institute of Geography of Russian Academy of Sciences
Practical Geography and XXI Century Challenges
Moscow, 4-6 June 2018

Info and important deadlines here

• PGSG pre-conference AAG 2018