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Root number
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520636 |
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Semester
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HS2026 |
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Type of course
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Course |
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Allocation to subject
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History |
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Type of exam
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not defined |
| Title |
Between Territory and Representation – Historical Maps as a Digital Source for the Environmental and Technological History of Switzerland (19th–20th Centuries) |
| Description |
Maps are not neutral reflections of reality – they are products of knowledge regimes, technical infrastructures, and social interests. This source-based seminar takes the digital map portal map.geo.admin.ch, specifically its "Journey through time – maps" function, as a starting point to pursue two intertwined questions: How did cartographic knowledge emerge and transform during the modern era? And what do these maps reveal about the profound transformation of the Swiss landscape between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries?
In a first step, students will collaboratively engage with introductory texts on the history of cartography. Environmental, technological, and history-of-knowledge perspectives will be at the center of our analysis: How did new infrastructures, such as the railway, and processes like industrialisation reshape the ways in which national space was surveyed and represented? Which actors – from engineers and military officers to administrative officials – shaped the production and circulation of cartographic knowledge?
In a second step, students will analyse concrete landscape transformations in modern Switzerland using map excerpts of their own choosing. Whether it be bog drainage, river straightening, transport corridors, industrial sites, or urban expansion – historical maps will be interrogated as primary sources and situated within their economic, environmental, and socio-technical contexts. In doing so, the seminar combines a critical reflection on the digital map collection with a source-based analysis of a Swiss landscape radically transformed since the nineteenth century. |
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ILIAS-Link (Learning resource for course)
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Registrations are transmitted from CTS to ILIAS (no admission in ILIAS possible).
ILIAS
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Link to another web site
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| Lecturers |
Dr.
Sebastian Emanuel Andreas De Pretto, Institute of History, Economic, Social and Environmental History ✉
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ECTS
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5 |
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Recognition as optional course possible
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No |
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Grading
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1 to 6 |
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| Dates |
Wednesday 10:15-12:00 Weekly
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Rooms
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| Students please consult the detailed view for complete information on dates, rooms and planned podcasts. |
User:
Öffentlicher Bereich
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