Hi All-

I'm the Review Editor for the "Atlas and Book Review" section of the WAML Information Bulletin. I'm seeking reviewers for the following books (descriptions for these books are taken from Amazon):

  *   New Directions in Radical Cartography, Phil Cohen and Mike Duggan, editors, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, December 2021, ISBN: 978-1538147191.
New Directions in Radical Cartography looks at the contemporary debates about the role of maps in society. It explores the emergence of counter-mapping as a distinctive field of practice, and the impact that digital mapping technologies have had on cartographic practice and theory. It includes original research, accounts of mapping projects and detailed readings of maps. The contributors explore how digital mapping technologies have sponsored a new wave of practices that seek to challenge the power that maps are commonly assumed to have. They document the continued vitality of analogue maps in the hands of artists and activists who are pushing the boundaries of what is mappable in different ways. New Directions in Radical Cartography draws on a rich body of mapping work that exists as part of community action, urban ethnography, environmental activism, humanitarianism, and public engagement.

  *   Encounters in the New World: Jesuit Cartography of the Americas, by Mirela Altic, University of Chicago Press, July 2022, ISBN: 978-0226791050.

In 1540, in the wake of the tumult brought on by the Protestant Reformation, Saint Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits. The Society's goal was to revitalize the faith of Catholics and to evangelize to non-Catholics through charity, education, and missionary work. By the end of the century, Jesuit missionaries were sent all over the world, including to South America. In addition to performing missionary and humanitarian work, Jesuits also served as cartographers and explorers under the auspices of the Spanish, Portuguese, and French crowns as they ventured into remote areas to find and evangelize to native populations.

In Encounters in the New World, Mirela Altic analyzes more than 150 of their maps, most of which have never previously been published. She traces the Jesuit contribution to mapping and mapmaking from their arrival in the New World into the post-suppression period, placing it in the context of their worldwide undertakings in the fields of science and art. Altic's analysis also shows the incorporation of indigenous knowledge into the Jesuit maps, effectively making them an expression of cross-cultural communication-even as they were tools of colonial expansion. This ambiguity, she reveals, reflects the complex relationship between missions, knowledge, and empire. Far more than just a physical survey of unknown space, Jesuit mapping of the New World was in fact the most important link to enable an exchange of ideas and cultural concepts between the Old World and the New.

Deadline will be the end of March for these reviews. (I will send you more specifics if wind up reviewing one of these books). Please contact me off-list if you're interested and I'll send you the book, the reviewer guidelines, and a due date. I'm also sending a separate email regarding two digital mapping projects that are up for review so stay tuned!

Thanks-

Ilene
Ilene Raynes
Map Library Program Manager
Rare and Distinctive Collections
(Includes Special Collections, Archives, Government Information Library, and Map Library)
Located in the Jerry Crail Johnson Earth Sciences & Map Library
University of Colorado Boulder Libraries
184 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309
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