Maximilian Georg
Maximilian Georg is a historian of archaeology and of geography, both of which he studies from a global history perspective. From 2013 to 2022, he was a researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL), Leipzig, Germany. Since 2024, he has been a postdoctoral Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Culture Studies (IKW), Vienna, Austria.
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Session
As history unfolds in space, maps depict certain historical situations and processes, particularly of an international or global scale, more clearly than words can. Therefore, maps hold great potential both as sources of (world) history and as methods to analyze and represent it. Nevertheless, some academic traditions regard maps as the purview of geographers rather than of historians, and many world history publications include barely any or no maps. Moreover, it takes specific knowledge to interpret historical maps, and specific skills to create a useful map that is not misleading or purely decorative. Digital tools have of course made cartography easier, but now we must learn how to choose and use them well. This workshop aims to raise awareness of maps in world history, and connect colleagues with and without cartographic experience. We will discuss the status of maps, their advantages as well as challenges, and how we may find and/or create maps for our own research. After a brief general input from the organizer, participants are invited to share their cartographic practices, opinions, ideas and requirements. As the conference is taking place in Korea, we should also consider cartographic traditions other than the dominant Western one. Finally, the workshop will introduce some free online collections of historical maps such as David Rumsey's, and free cartographic software such as QGIS and Historical Mapchart. Time permitting, we may sketch some sample maps with these tools, based on thematic suggestions from participants.