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SCOLMA - UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa

Annual Conference

African Trajectories: Travel and the Archive

2 July 2014,  University of Birmingham

CALL FOR PAPERS – deadline extended

“Travel, in the younger sort, is part of education; in the elder, a sort 
of experience”.  (Francis Bacon, On Travel)

Travel literature has perhaps never been so popular. Several new 
journals devoted to the genre have been launched in recent years. Africa 
is central to this new scholarship, and popularisation. The Livingstone 
Bicentenary in 2013 demonstrated the continued interest in nineteenth 
century explorers and new ways of accessing and interpreting their records.

On the one hand, historical travel writing is continues to be a subject 
of research and publication, and the field is now complicated by new 
perspectives on old narratives and by growing scholarship on the travels 
of African and Arabic writers within and  beyond the continent. On the 
other, travel accounts continue to flourish as a modern genre, with the 
publication not only of books but also of more and more accounts and 
guides in the blogosphere. Most travellers and tourists turn first to 
the internet for information. How is the existing archive being shaped 
and investigated in the 21st century? How can we capture the archive 
being generated by new media?

This conference will consider the role of scholars, libraries, archives 
and information sources in documenting and interpreting the complex 
inter-relationship of travel, tourism and heritage in, to and from 
Africa.  Topics may include, but are not limited to:

- Classic accounts of travel and exploration – critiques and new 
perspectives
- Exploring the archive: new sources for histories of travel
- Opening up the archive in the digital age
- Mapping and geographies of travel
- Guidebooks and advertising
- Travel writing and new media
- Preservation of ephemera

Researchers, archivists and librarians are invited to submit abstracts 
for consideration for this conference.  Abstracts of up to 500 words may 
be sent to Lucy McCann at [log in to unmask] by 22 April 2014.

-- 
Anne Taylor
Head of Map Department, Cambridge University Library, West Road, 
Cambridge CB3 9DR
Tel: 01223-333041.   Fax: 01223-333160.   email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/deptserv/maps/

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