Scribner Seminar, London FYE 2024

The World Through Maps (London Edition) 

Jordana Dym
Professor of History

Harry Beck, Pocket London Underground Map (1933)

Many people think of maps as mirrors of the world – objective or neutral reflections of the spaces and themes they show. Yet most historical and contemporary maps are agents of knowledge and power; they reveal a lot about the peoples, spaces, and times they portray as they influence the societies that create and consume them.  In this class we will learn to read historical and contemporary maps for more than geographical information and consider the way that maps and mapping shape our understanding of the world. Drawing on methods used in history, art history, literary studies, and geography, we will consider map production, circulation in case studies that focus on Britain at home and overseas. Topics will include mapmaking and use in imperial encounters, how non-Western peoples resisted colonialism, and whether there can be a “cartographic ethic” in maps that show subjects as varied as zoos and city streets, international conflicts, geological formations, and the spread of disease.

As we visit public and private map collections in London, there will be opportunities to think about how we engage with maps that are made for and by kings, generals, pilgrims, tourists and children; maps that are sketched on paper, inked on vellum, woven into tapestry, molded in clay, flashed across computer or movie screens, and created on foot as we navigate city streets. Student-created and -led guide walking and/or virtual tours will wrap up the course, demonstrating how historical maps helps us navigate and understand today’s London cityscape. 

Jordana Dym is a Professor of History and Chair of the International Society for the History of the Map (ISHMap, 2019-2023) and editor of the map history journal, Imago Mundi (2022-).  Her  research and teaching interests include Latin America, the history of cartography, book history and public history. Recent courses have focused on the history of travel and travel writing, war and peace, maps, and archival storytelling. She enjoys building international connections for and with students and has led Skidmore programs in France, Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala and Puerto Rico. She twice directed Skidmore's Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies minor program, and was the inaugural director of the John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS) (2014-2018).