Don Mitchell of Syracuse University and Sallie A. Marston of the University of Arizona will present keynote talks at the first annual Kemp Family Symposium on Geography and History, October 2-3 at the University of Michigan.

The symposium events, which also include two panel discussions and a reflection of conference themes, will focus on new directions in history and interdisciplinary connections with the field of geography and are presented in conjunction with the Eisenberg Institute's fall 2014 programming.

The Kemp Family Symposium on Geography and History has been made possible by a generous contribution from the Kemp Family Fund, consisting of four generations of University of Michigan graduates with a lifelong commitment to encourage the study of history; not only as a way to learn about the past, but as a guide to understand the present and to anticipate the future. Additional support from the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, Department of History, International Institute, Rackham Graduate School, and Institute for the Humanities. 

The full symposium schedule is below; link to specific events for additional details. All events are free and open to the public and take place in 1014 Tisch Hall.

Thursday, October 2

4:00 p.m., Lecture: Don Mitchell, Syracuse University, “People’s Park Again: Landscape and the Production of Space”

Friday, October 3

9:00 a.m., Welcome

9:15-11:00 a.m., Panel: "Imagining, Claiming, and Organizing Space"

  • Philip J. Deloria, University of Michigan, “Mountain High, Valley Low, River Wide:  Indigenous Geographies in Taiwan and the North American West”
  • Christian de Pee, University of Michigan, “Literary Geographies and the Emergence of the City into Writing in Eleventh-Century China”
  • Tiggy McLaughlin, University of Michigan, “Mending the Mediterranean: The Christian Geography of Caesarius of Arles (469-542)”
  • Farina Mir, University of Michigan, panel chair

11:00-11:15 a.m., Coffee Break

11:15 a.m.-1:00 p.m., Lecture: Sallie Marston, University of Arizona, “Thinking and Doing Spatiality Differently”

1:00-2:00 p.m., Lunch

2:30-4:15 p.m., Panel: "Collisions of Time and Space"

  • Charles Sullivan, University of Michigan, “Cultural Maps of Identity and Colonial Spaces: A Javanese Courtier’s Attempt to Square Western Ideas of Geography with Javanese Cosmology”
  • Dario Gaggio, University of Michigan, “'Vivere di Rendita:’ The Political Economy of Heritage in Postwar Tuscany”
  • Gabrielle Hecht, University of Michigan, “Ontologies of Waste: Colliding Time Scales, Spatial Politics, and Material Inequalities in the Production of Toxic Citizenships”
  • Perrin Selcer, University of Michigan, panel chair

4:15-4:30 p.m., Coffee Break

4:30-4:50 p.m., Reflections on Conference Themes, Don Mitchell, Syracuse University

4:50-5:30 p.m., General Discussion of Conference Themes

5:30-6:30 Reception

Image: Global flight visualization (josullivan.59, CC 3.0).