University Libraries presents 2024 Willard Lecture

University Libraries presents the 2024 Willard Lecture, Borders and Other Imagined Spaces: How Maps Define Understanding. The panel presentation will take place on September 19 from 4 - 5:30 p.m. in the historic West Wing of Zimmerman Library. Light refreshments will be served.

The panel features Maria Lane, dean of Graduate Studies and professor in Geography; Katherine Massoth, assistant professor in History; and Sierra Ramirez, Ph.D. student in History. Marcy Botwick, Borders Exhibit curator and Zimmerman librarian will also participate in the discussion. The presentation will focus on the history of mapmaking in the Southwestern United States and will examine how maps, intentionally and unintentionally, reveal social dynamics equally as much as geographic formations. Lane and Ramirez will also discuss an innovative collaboration between the University's history and geography departments that highlights and reintegrates indigenous knowledge on historic national trail sites through interactive mapping techniques.

This Willard Lecture ties into the current exhibit on display in Zimmerman Library in the North entrance hall and on the south side of the Learning Commons titled Borders: Created, Contested & Imagined. This exhibit focuses on the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico curating maps found in the University Libraries Federal Repository, the Center for Southwest Research Special Collections (CSWR) and the Map & Geographic Information Center (MAGIC). An online guide to the exhibition can be found at https://goto.unm.edu/zec60.

The Willard Lecture Series, established in honor of former UNM Regent Larry Willard, features engaging speakers highlighting collections from the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections, the work of University of New Mexico scholars and topics impacting today's changing libraries and their impact on the world of academics and research.