Description
This panel explores how maps are far more than tools for navigation. They are instruments of power, shaping how we see the world and how the world is controlled.
From imperial cartography to modern surveillance systems, maps have long been used to assert authority, conceal information, and construct realities. It is an era when we ‘unknowingly trade privacy for convenience’ via our phones, bank cards and travel passes, and offer up constant maps of our movement through location data.
Reconsider the maps you encounter every day, consider not just what they show, but what they hide, and who has the power to draw them.
About the Authors
Dr Pragya Agarwal
Dr. Pragya Agarwal is a visiting professor of social inequities and injustice at Loughborough University in the UK, and a fellow at the University of Cambridge. Her research lies at the intersection of geography, sociology and technology to investigate historic legacies and modern manifestations of inequalities. She is the author of four non-fiction books: Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias (London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2020) which was Guardian Book of the Week and translated in Korean and Turkish; Wish we knew what to say: Talking with children about race (London: Dialogue Books, 2020); (M)otherhood: On the choices of being a woman (London: Canongate, 2021); Hysterical: Exploding the myth of gendered emotions (London: Canongate, 2022) which was translated into Mandarin; and an upcoming book in 2027. Pragya also writes regularly for publications such as The Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, Scientific American, New Scientist, Literary Hub and Prospect Magazine, and has contributed to anthologies for the Design Museum and Wellcome Trust. She has been awarded the Transmission Prize for ‘making complex scientific ideas accessible’.
Maxim Samson
Maxim Samson is an independent researcher and author of Earth Shapers: How Humans Mastered Geography and Remade the World and Invisible Lines: Boundaries and Belts That Define the World, both published by Profile Books. He holds a PhD in geography from the University of Leeds and has taught and lectured internationally. A former award-winning adjunct professor at DePaul University, Chicago, he now teaches geography and leads EPQ, supporting students in independent research.
About the Academic
Saeed Khan
Saeed Khan is a cultural historian and commentator based at Wayne State University in Detroit, where he teaches in the departments of History and Global Studies. His academic expertise includes Islamic and Middle Eastern history, Islamic political thought, and transnational identities. Alongside his academic work, he is a frequent analyst for international media outlets. Saeed is the founder of the Center for the Study of Trans-Atlantic Diasporas, a policy institute focused on ethnic and immigrant communities in North America and Europe.
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