CO-SPONSORSHIP: Arts, Literature, and Religion Unit and Comparative Studies in Religion Unit

Maps: Fantastical, Acquisitive and Religious

Maps have long been an inventive way for religious thought-leaders, institutions, and artists to represent specific teachings, targets, and aspirations in visual terms. This panel invites papers on the religious meanings embedded in maps and charts. Some maps imagine utopian 'places' or depict fantastic 'other worlds'; some re-order the known cosmos to represent a religious perception of this world or reality (allegorical maps, for instance); while others are used acquisitively to claim territory or populations in the interest of an expanding religion. Other interpretations are also invited. This panel seeks scholars who will enjoy sharing investigations into instructive examples of maps in religious systems for a visually vibrant and intellectually intriguing session.