Public lecture – Free the Map. Towards a new cartography of borders and migration

In this lecture, Henk van Houtum will unravel the impact of the hegemonic state-centric cartography on our current understanding of borders and migration. Then, he will present an overview of existing alternative cartographic representations that power-fully and convincingly humanize and mobilize the map, which he categorize as counter-mapping, experience-mapping, and connectivity-mapping. These approaches not only challenge the notion of borders as mere lines and migration as unidirectional arrows but also map histories, human experiences, discriminatory (in)hospitalities, international relationships and connections.

28 October 2026, 6-7.30 pm
Saarland University, Building C5 3, Room E.23
Lecture in English 
 

_{^{Source: Henk van Houtum (2024), Free the Map, from Atlas to Hermes, a new cartography of borders and migration, nai010, 142-143}}

Henk van Houtum is currently UniGR-CBS Fellow at University of Luxembourg. He is Professor of Geopolitics and Political Geography at Radboud University Nijmegen and head of the Nijmegen Centre for Border Research. He works and teaches on b/ordering and othering, cross-border interaction, migration and cartography.