Guest lecture on Geographical Societies in Transnational Perspective (21 Oct 2024)

The ELTE Department of Social and Economic Geography cordially invites you to the following guest lecture in English.

Presenter: Johannes Mattes (Marie Curie Fellow, University of Oslo, Department of Archaeology, Conservation, and History & Research Fellow, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Culture Studies)

Title: Poles and People: Geographical Societies, Statehood, and Civil Society in Transnational Perspective (1870–1925)

Date: October 21, 2024 (Monday), 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. (noon)

Venue: ELTE Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, D 1.104 Geography Council Room (Földrajzi tanácsterem)

Abstract:

This paper outlines my ongoing Marie Curie Fellowship project and its preliminary results, conducted at the University of Oslo. It investigates the groundwork of statehood, science popularisation, and (trans)national cooperation with specific regard to the Polar Regions and “inner Africa”. In the nineteenth century, geographical societies formed the institutional base for the rising field of geographical research. Their foundation, mainly in European capitals, coincided with the growth of a civil society and the rise of imperial claims to power. By simultaneously practicing and popularizing science, they developed a lasting impact on the exploration and public perception of inaccessible environments such as the Arctic, Antarctica, and “inner Africa”. However, the study of these “blank spots” followed not only political and economic interests, but also served sociocultural identity-building purposes and promised to provide scientific answers to questions of global interest such as climatology and ecology.

In this project, I compare the geographical societies of four capitals: Brussels, Edinburgh, Oslo, and Vienna. Societies in these cities considered the Polar Regions and/or “inner Africa” as major poles of their geographical inquiry. Particular attention will be laid on (1) historical geographies in which research on the Polar Regions and Africa was practiced, networks of exchange established, and scholarship popularised; (2) the relationship between state governance and geographical societies in the context of national and imperial statehood; (3) interaction processes between science, geographical exploration and the public sphere with regard to the practitioners, field sites, and exchange formats involved.