Next VizCult: Nancy Appelbaum, Binghamton University

“Mapping the ‘Country of Regions’: How the Nineteenth-Century Chorographic Commission of Colombia Envisioned the Nation”

Wednesday, October 1, 5:15 pm
FA 218

Carmelo Fernández. Soto. Tejedoras i mercaderas de sombreros nacuma en Bucaramanga.– Tipos blanco, mestizo y zambo. Ca. 1851. Watercolor.

This paper explores how an ambitious nineteenth-century geographic expedition known as the Chorographic Commission envisioned the nation of New Granada (now Colombia) as a hierarchy of regions and races. Tensions evident in the commission’s images, texts, and maps reflected contradictions that undermined the nation-building project of the mid-century elite.

Nancy Appelbaum is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Area Studies Program (LACAS) at Binghamton University.