Past IGU Events

There are a considerable number of international conferences and events. The CPG includes those of the IGU, our hosted sessions and that which is relevant to political geographers.

In 2020-2021, due to COVID-19 driven postponements, most of these conferences were postponed to 2021 and held online or hybridized. The 34th IGC Istanbul, Turkeye due August 2020, was postponed and held as a virtual conference in August 2021. The thematic conference on Heritage Geographies, Lecce 2021 was co-sponsored by several IGU commissions including the Commission on Political Geography.  Unfortunately we were neither able to visit Lecce, the main city of the Salentine Peninsula (at the “heel” of the Italian Peninsula) and to enjoy its incredible heritage nor the venue of the University of Salento.

Istanbul, Turkeye August 2020, postponed 16-20 August 2021. 34th International Geographical Congress (IGC). Theme: Geography: Bridging the continents.

IGU Thematic Conference Heritage Geographies: Politics, Uses and Governance of the Past, Lecce, Italy 29-31 May 2020 postponed to 27-29 May 2021. Virtual conference

The Commission on Political Geography sponsored two sessions:

Language (as) Heritage (in) Place: Political geographies of linguistic heritage geographies 

Chair: Virginie Mamadouh

  • La lexicotopographie, nouvel outil d’analyse et de restitution des patrimoines linguistiques minoritaires. Bernardo Cardinale, University of Teramo, Italy; Giovanni Agresti, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, France.
  • The politics of displaying minority place names: what is behind the local deals? Patrik Tatrai, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Hungary.
  • Heritage languages, place-making and belonging: Three geographical excursions. Virginie Mamadouh, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Heritage and Nationalism

Chair: Alec Murphy

  • Dances with Despots: exploring the current representation of monumental statues and visitor engagement with these ‘ghosts’ of past regimes within Eastern Europe. Elizabeth Carnegie, Northumbria University, UK;  Jerzy Kociatkiewicz, University of Sheffield, UK.
  • Catalan nationalism and heritage. The construction of the born as an independence icon (Barcelona, Spain). Dolores Sanchez Aguilera, Jaume Font Garolera, University of Barcelona, Spain.
  • The current wrong narrative of Kurds wanting a single state-nation: a media distraction iconography from the socio-political practice and proposal in Rojava? Fabrizio Eva, University Cà Foscari Venice, Italy.
  • National Branding and controversies: the case of internationalisation of Louvre. Marie-Alix Molinié-Andlauer, Sorbonne University, France.
  • Japan Heritage Branding and Political Soft Power: A Vision for Nationalism? Lesley Crowe-Delaney, Curtin University, Australia.
  • Renaming the Landscape: Nationalism, Ultra-Nationalism and State Formation in Israel-Palestine
    David Newman, Ben-Gurion University, Israel.
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