- When
- Thursday, October 8, 2026 · 3:00 PM EDT – 4:00 PM EDT
- Where
- Bird Library, Peter Graham Scholarly Commons (Room 114)
- Organizer
- Syracuse University local campus events
- Type
- Lectures, Seminars and Discussions
About this event
On the Political Logics of Banning Cartography Featuring: Ian Spangler, Visiting Lecturer and Interim Director of the Spatial Analysis Lab, University of Richmond Maps are not neutral. They are social objects, fundamentally shaped by power and politics, and always contain bias and distortion. Sometimes, maps are banned, but more commonly, maps are the ban. And acts of cartographic censorship, as well as the kinds of political logics that shape and are shaped by them, are not constituted evenly. In this talk, Spangler argues that we need a better vocabulary for understanding and disambiguating non-neutrality within cartography that bans and is banned. The UN's recent disposition of the Mercator projection, or trigger warnings on harmful materials in digital map collections, could be considered censors, but restorative ones: counter-censors, perhaps. Meanwhile, some current examples of map bans (such as the executive renaming of places like the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario and Denali) are best understood as cartographic trolls: actions by bad-faith political provocateurs who use maps to insult, infuriate, harass and violate. Comparing new maps with older ones reminds us that troll maps and counter-censors are nothing new. Further, tracing their genealogy and putting them in dialogue with one another reveals some strategies for navigating an increasingly volatile and authoritarian political landscape. About Ian Spangler: Ian Spangler is an urban and economic geographer with interests in housing justice, the political economy of digital platforms, and all forms of cartographic media. His current research explores competition and cooperation in real estate (data) markets, with a focus on housing and digital real estate technologies. As Associate Curator at the Leventhal Map & Education Center’s next exhibition, Ian co-curated Processing Place: How Computers and Cartographers Redrew Our World (2024), and is also curating the Center's upcoming exhibition on housing in Boston (2027). Ian is currently Visiting Lecturer and Interim Director of the Spatial Analysis Lab at the University of Richmond, where he teaches courses in geospatial analysis, cartography, and GIS. This event has been sponsored by Maxwell School's Community Geography program. Banned Books Week is organized by Syracuse University Libraries and the College of Arts & Sciences' Department of English, along with sponsors: the Departments of Religion; Women's and Gender Studies; Art and Music History; LGBT Studies; Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics; Political Science; and Writing; The Humanities Center; as well as the Tully Center for Free Speech and Maxwell School's Community Geography Program.
Description from Syracuse University local campus events.
Registration, tickets, accessibility and last-minute changes are handled by the organizer. Confirm details before you go.
Event page and booking ↗