On August 28, 2024, Cartographies of Cancer project member Dr. Jennifer Fraser delivered a paper on “Atlasing Cancer: Oncological World-Making in the Past and Present” at the Royal Geographical Society’s Annual International Conference as part of a panel on “Reimagining Early Thematic Mapping.”
Scholars have long drawn attention to how maps consolidate power, construct identity, and shape movements through landscapes. But how do atlases structure how we see the world? Can looking at these compendiums tell us something different about how we create, imagine, and manage space? Fraser’s presentation grappled with these questions, specifically as they relate to cancer. By looking at how cancer atlases produced by international cancer agencies have been sliced and stitched together across time, Fraser’s presentation interrogated these compendiums’ shared histories and explored their world-making potential. Arthur Robinson, renowned cartographer, and author of the influential “Early Thematic Mapping in the History of Cartography,” once classified medical maps as “maps of the social environment.” However, by flipping the script and looking at the social environments of these maps, this presentation put forward the idea that while atlases’ are often considered individually as standalone pieces, they are multilayered and interconnected objects that aren’t just projections of the world, but are steadfastly embedded in it as well.
