[Sci-tech-public] STS Circle, April 16th - Christine Leuenberger - (Please RSVP)

[Lee Vinsel]

 *STS Circle at Harvard*
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*Christine Leuenberger *
*Cornell University, STS*
*
*
on

*The Politics of Maps: Mapping the West Bank Barrier
*

Title:

The Politics of Maps: Mapping the West Bank Barrier

  Monday, April 16th
12:15-2:00 p.m.
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 100, Room 106

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Lunch is provided if you RSVP.
Please RSVP to sts
<sts at hks.harvard.edu>@hks.harvard.edu<sts at hks.harvard.edu>by 5pm
Thursday, April 12th.
*
*
*Abstract:* The West Bank Barrier increasingly reshapes Israeli and
Palestinian land-and cityscapes. Its physical infrastructure – which
consists of walls and an elaborate fence system - are depicted prominently
in some maps, but disappear or are omitted in others. This paper examines
how different Israeli, Palestinian, and international governmental and
non-governmental cartographic institutions delineate the West Bank Barrier
in maps. The focus is on how various visual and textual devices as well as
spatial markers are used to communicate certain social and political
concerns, construct particular spatial orders, and portray the West Bank
Barrier as either a negligible feature of the landscape or as a significant
obstacle to the freedom of movement. The cartographic construction of the
barrier in maps shows how cartographers’ assumptions concerning its
function, the map’s target audience, and the adequacy of various national
and trans-national cartographic standards, may provide an authoritative and
legitimate, yet, an inevitably political and locally produced,
representation of the West Bank Barrier.

*Biography*: **** Christine Leuenberger is Senior Lecturer in the
Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University. She
received her PhD in Sociology/Social Sciences in 1995 from the University
of Konstanz (Germany) and an MA in Sociology of Contemporary Culture from
the University of York (England). She was a Fulbright Scholar in Israel and
the Palestinian Territories in 2008 and a Fulbright Specialist at Tel Aviv
University (Israel) in 2011/12. She is the recent recipient of an NSF
Scholars award to study the history and sociology of mapping practices in
Israel and the Palestinian Territories. She is also working on the social
impact of the West Bank Barrier and on the social history of psychology in
the Middle East.




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http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/events/sts_circle/
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