Introduction

In this workshop we considered the conceptual underpinnings of research on tropical images and imaginings and the visual archive of travel. Felix Driver introduced the intellectual context of the project, including issues of scope, concepts and methodology. Based on a range of visual materials, Luciana Martins raised questions about the history and geography of British notions of tropicality. This paper was followed by a roundtable discussion of the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography issue edited by Felix Driver and Brenda Yeoh on 'Constructing the Tropics'
(vol. 21, 2000).

Participants

• David Arnold (SOAS)
• Denis Cosgrove (UCLA & Royal Holloway)
• Phil Crang (Royal Holloway)
• Felix Driver (Royal Holloway)
• Tariq Jazeel (Royal Holloway)
• David Livingstone (Queen's, Belfast)
• Luciana Martins (Royal Holloway)
• Kathy Prendergast (AHRB Fellow, Royal Holloway)
• Rebecca Preston (Royal Holloway)
• Nigel Rigby (National Maritime Museum)

Issues in Discussion

• The spatiality of the tropical
• The role of the visual
• The historical geography of the idea of the tropics