The second Barry Lawrence Ruderman Conference on Cartography took place October 10-12, 2019. Please see the event's online exhibition for talks, video, and more information. 

This year’s meeting focused on the relationship between gender, sexuality, and cartography. While some scholars have examined the interplay of gender identities and mapping, particularly with regard to the role of women as buyers and sellers in the historical map market, this work remains isolated and has yet to make a significant impact on the wider field. This conference intended to offer a counterpoint to this trend by bringing together diverse approaches and hosting interdisciplinary discussions.

While all the invited speakers were experts in maps and mapping, they also brought their specialties in queer, women’s, and gender studies to bear on the nuanced ways in which maps are conditioned by and help to construct, and transgress, gendered and sexualized norms and spaces. Paper topics included mapping sexual practices in French Vietnam, women in American cartographic history, the gendered cartographic language of medieval texts, the digital mapping of queer spaces, and much more. The last day of the conference focused specially on art, cartography, gender, and sexuality. Artists, scholars, and activists discussed maps as a medium for the visual expression of place, gender, and sexuality.