The Brussels Map Circle
Home → Events

Events

Access to archives

–
St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada
Organisation: The Society for the History of Discoveries
Throughout history, islands have functioned as both isolated laboratories of evolution and central hubs of global maritime networks. From the earliest known navigations to the European expansions in the "Age of Discovery", and contemporary deep-sea charting, the act of "discovering" an island is a complex event involving story-telling, encounters, scientific inquiry, and mapmaking.
This interdisciplinary conference seeks to examine the multifaceted history and ongoing process of island exploration. We invite scholars from history, geography, cartography, maritime studies, and related fields to submit proposals that interrogate how islands and island encounters relate to global exploration, exchange, and discovery.
More information here.


Online, Online (Italy and Turkey)
We warmly welcome contributions centred on the History of Cartography, Historical Geography, Spatial Humanities, Philology, Material Culture, and Environmental History, adopting an interdisciplinary, diachronic perspective that spans a wide chronological trajectory from antiquity and the medieval world, through the early modern era and the milestone cartographic shifts of the 18th century, up to colonial mapping, national state-building, and contemporary digital geographies. In alignment with H-Maps’ mission, this series encourages proposals that investigate how the making, circulation, use, and preservation of maps negotiated, represented, and shaped ecological limits, resource management, and the fluid dynamics of territorial, political, and conceptual boundaries (borders). Mapping the Limits: Cartography, Resource Management, and the Visualisation of Borders
This edition explores sustainability and borders not merely as modern environmental or political frameworks, but as historical concepts deeply intertwined with the development of cartographic literacy, imperial expansions, and indigenous spatial resistance. The series investigates these dynamics across several interconnected dimensions
More information here.


Gotha, Germany
Organisation: Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences and University of Erfurt, Centre for Transcultural Studies / Perthes Collection
The Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Prague, Czechia) and the University of Erfurt, Centre for Transcultural Studies / Perthes Collection (Gotha, Germany), invite paper proposals for a two-day international workshop dedicated to the history and theory of crisis mapping from the 19th to the 21st century.
Contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes are invited:
  • Maps as analytical tools and instruments of power and governance: crisis management, political argumentation, propaganda, real-time mapping during ongoing crises and disasters, and the role of state and institutional actors;
  • Visual languages and cartographic conventions: standardisation, symbols, techniques of representation;
  • Counter-mapping and grassroots practices: non-institutional actors, communities, and individuals as producers of crisis cartographies; maps as tools of resistance, negotiation, and contestation;
  • Methodological and comparative perspectives: Historical GIS, Digital Humanities, digital mapping projects, transnational approaches, and studies of non-Western cartographic traditions.

Organisers:
Register form.


Washington, USA
Organisation: Library of Congress
Applications for the Library of Congress Philip Lee Phillips Society Fellowship are now open for 2026. Fellows will be awarded an eight-week research residency in the Geography & Map Division at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, supported by an $11,500 research stipend.
Applications are due by September 15, 2026. More information here.


-, -
Organisation: The Willison Foundation Charitable Trust
The Willison Foundation Charitable Trust (established in 2016 by Mr. Ian Willison) is a registered charity dedicated to the advancement of the History of the Book in the humanities. While its primary focus is book history, the Trust actively funds research into cartography—specifically the production, circulation, and consumption of maps, charts, and mass-produced graphics. The maximum grant available is £5,000.
Research focus:
  • Historical Map-Making: The Trust supports academic studies focusing on English and European map and chart-making between 1500 and 1800
  • Cartography & Diplomacy: It funds projects investigating the intersection of cartography, travel accounts, and international relations (such as map usage during the Congress of Utrecht)
  • Graphics as Text: The Trust broadly considers maps, music, and mass-produced prints as integral components of book history

More information here.


Barcelona, Spain
Organisation: ISHMap
ISHMap is delighted to welcome proposals to participate in the International Society for the History of the Map (ISHMap) Symposium and Workshop that will take place in Barcelona from 24 to 28 May 2027. The Symposium is organized in collaboration with the Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya. More information on the ISHMap webpage.


Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Organisation: Allard Pierson
The Allard Pierson Fellowship for Cartography 2027 is a three-months fellowship, intended for research based on digital derivatives of the heritage collections in cartography and geography. Digitised maps and digital applications are becoming available in growing numbers, and the Allard Pierson wishes to support innovative and critical academic research in this field.
More information here.


Gotha, Germany
Organisation: Gotha Research Library and the Gotha Research Centre of the University of Erfurt
With the Herzog-Ernst scholarships at the Gotha Research Library and the Gotha Research Centre of the University of Erfurt as well as at theCentre for Transcultural Studies / Perthes Collection the academic study of the library's holdings and the historical collections of the Justus Perthes Gotha publishing house is promoted. The academic content of the programme aims to take account of the diverse holdings and the universality of the Gotha library. The programme has an open thematic and disciplinary character. In addition, the holdings of the Thuringian State Archives - Gotha State Archives and the Friedenstein Castle Gotha Foundation can also be included in the research programme.
Deadline for application is September 30 More information here.
Brussels Map Circle event


Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
Organisation: BMC
Join us on 3 October for an exclusive tour of the recently renovated Map Mercator Museum!
Please meet at the museum at 9.45 am for the guided tour. The visit will be followed by an optional lunch.
Please register using this form.
Costs:
  • BMC Member 5€
  • Non-members/Guests: 15€

–
Budapest, Hungary
Organisation: Commission on Cartographic Heritage into the Digital
The Commission on Cartographic Heritage into the Digital of the International Cartographic Association, continuing the tradition of its annual Cartoheritage Conferences, since 2006, is organising the 20th Conference Digital Approaches to Cartographic Heritage (ICA DACH) in Budapest, Hungary, 29-31 October 2026, in partnership with the Ludovika University of Public Service (UNI-NKE), Department of Geography and Natural Sciences, the Eötvös Loránd University, Department of Cartography & Geoinformatics and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, CartoGeoLab - Laboratory of Cartography and Geographical Analysis. The conference is supported by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Research Committee and MAGIC - Map & Geoinformation Curators Group.
More information and programme here.

–
Istanbul, Turkey
Organisation: Piri Reis University
The life, works, and era of Piri Reis, one of the most important figures in Ottoman maritime history, are re-examined from a multifaceted perspective focusing on the Mediterranean, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean.
More information here.


-, -
Organisation: Imago Mundi CIO
The Trustees of Imago Mundi CIO invite applications to host the 2030 International Conference on the History of Cartography. The International Conference on the History of Cartography (ICHC) has been held biennially since 1964, with highly successful recent meetings in Bucharest (2022) and Lyon (2024). The 31st ICHC will be held in Prague, from July 7-11, 2026. The 32nd ICHC will be held in Oxford in summer, 2028. Applications should include:
  • information about the proposed conference venue(s);
  • details of the membership of the organising committee and any partner institutions;
  • suggested theme(s) for the conference;
  • an outline of the conference schedule, including any proposed exhibitions.
Informal enquiries and expressions of interest are very welcome, and should be directed to Wouter Bracke, Chair of Imago Mundi CIO.
The deadline for formal applications to host the 2030 ICHC is December 1, 2026. Applications should be sent to Wouter Bracke