Mapping from Mexico: New Narratives for the History of Cartography
The Newberry Library
October 16 - 18, 2025
Free registration required to attend virtually
The 2025 Nebenzahl Lectures continue to promote new thinking in map history by asking how orienting our stories from Mexico, looking out toward the rest of the world, challenges common narratives and popular assumptions in the history of mapmaking. Despite the prominent role mapping in Mexico has played, cartographic histories are often told from a European perspective. But how do the stories we tell, methodological assumptions we make, and categories we define about maps and map history change when we treat sites of production and reception in Mexico—from Mexico City, Oaxaca, and Puebla to the borderlands—with the same specificity map history has given to European centers?
We are thrilled to welcome Raquel Urroz Kanán, professor of Geography and Anthropology at UNAM, for the keynote address. Over three days we will also hear from a variety of speakers including art historian Daniela Bleichmar, historian Guadalupe Pinzón Ríos, art historian Emmanuel Ortega, historian Alex Hidalgo, art historian Mónica A. Ramírez Bernal, and Layla Bermeo, curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. To end the weekend, the speakers will participate in a roundtable discussion, hosted by art historian Barbara Mundy.
