Aims
This interdisciplinary conference was devoted to the various ways in which
the tropics have been imagined and experienced by travellers over the last
three centuries, with particular emphasis on the circulation of images,
commodities and exotic species around the world via maritime routes. It
embraced comparative studies of different localities, focussing principally
on visual representations of tropical landscapes - in paintings, sketches,
maps, charts and texts.
A book, based principally on papers presented at the conference, will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2005, under the title Tropical Visions in an Age of Empire, edited by Felix Driver and Luciana Martins.
Themes
The conference focussed mainly on European images of the tropical world.
What was the relationship between the imagining of the tropics and the geography
of maritime travel? How have travellers represented the tropical world in
different periods and places? What role did visual images play in the construction
of scientific knowledge about tropical nature? In what ways did cultural
encounters shape views and visions of tropical landscapes? Conference sessions
considered:
Speakers
The conference drew together specialists working in historical geography,
visual culture, the history of science, literature, maritime and imperial
history, as well as to appeal to a wider audience. The list of speakers
included David Arnold (SOAS), Leonard Bell (Auckland), D. Graham Burnett
(Princeton), Michael Dettelbach (Smith College, Mass), Felix Driver (Royal
Holloway), Rod Edmond (Kent), Harriet Guest (York), Peter Hulme (Essex),
Kay Dian Kriz (Brown), Luciana Martins (Royal Holloway), Nancy Stepan (Columbia),
Nicholas Thomas (Goldsmiths) and Beth Tobin (Hawaii).
Convenors
The conference was convened by Professor Felix Driver and Dr Luciana Martins,
in the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London,
and Dr Margarette Lincoln and Dr Nigel Rigby in the Centre for Research,
National Maritime Museum, London. The conference was associated with an
AHRB-funded Research Project on 'Knowing the Tropics: British Images of
the Tropical World' (October 1999 - September 2002).
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Support
This conference was supported by the following
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