In October 2024, the New Area Studies Research Centre, in collaboration with the East Centre and the School of Global Development at the University of East Anglia (UEA), hosted the first in a series of international symposiums on the theme of Imagined Geographies.

The keynote speaker at this event was Professor Edith W. Clowes, Brown-Forman Professor, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia. Her forthcoming book on Shredding the Map: Imagined Geographies of Revolutionary Russia speaks directly to issues of place consciousness and place-based identity.

Papers and presentations from across the globe addressed the theme of Imagined Geographies from a wealth of inter/disciplinary perspectives including: New Area Studies, attachment to place, space, identity, geography, gender, place-making, area, region, translation, research methods, maps, narratives and memory. Panels and papers range across matters like colonisation/decolonisation, knowledge-making and production, the geographies of marginalisation, narratives and local voice, indigeneity, agency and epistemology.

Videos of the conferences are available on YouTube and our website.