Convened by Kirsten Greer (Nipissing University, Canada) and David Lambert (University of Warwick, UK)

Just over a decade ago, Alan Baker wrote that ‘[g]eography and history are different ways of looking at the world but they are so closely related that neither one can afford to ignore or even neglect the other’ (Geography and History: Bridging the Divide, 2003, p. 3).

The ICHG 2015 conference provides an ideal opportunity to revisit the relations between the disciplines of geography and history through international and comparative perspectives, focusing on similarities and differences in core concepts and assumptions, methods and pedagogical practices, as well as areas of potential collaboration – and competition. In so doing, it will reconsider Baker’s ‘divide’ between history and how it might be ‘bridged,’ in light of such developments as:

• the ‘temporal foreshortening’ of geography (Rhys Jones, ‘What time is human geography?’, 2004; Keith Lilley, ‘Geography’s medieval history, 2011);
• the ‘spatial turn,’ the rise of ‘spatial humanities’ and geo-humanities,’ and increasing use by historians of methods and techniques associated with GIS and digital mapping;
• the rise of historical perspectives and sub-disciplines in which the spatial is foregrounded (if sometimes unexamined) including environmental history, history of science, transnational history, global history and Atlantic history;
• the continuing importance attached to ‘the archive’ in empirical historical research;
• the promotion of inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches by funding councils and other academic institutions.

Papers are particularly welcomed from those who have inhabited both disciplines, a perspective that may enable the ‘everydayness’ of the relations between history and geography to be considered.

Please send abstracts of no more than 200 words to BOTH convenors by Friday 29th August. In a separate paragraph, please provide details of any special audio-visual requirements or mobility requirements.

Dr David Lambert, Department of History, University of Warwick, UK: D.Lambert@warwick.ac.uk; and Dr Kirsten Greer, Departments of Geography & History, Nipissing University, Canada: kirsteng@nipissingu.ca

Further details on the ICHG Conference are available at: http://www.ichg2015.org/

Details of conference fees are available at: http://www.ichg2015.org/registration

This panel is sponsored by the Transnational Ecologies Project: http://niche-canada.org/transnational-ecologies-project/