Cartographies of Loss: The Afterlives of War

September 15–18, 2025
Dunton Tower, Room 2017
Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6
Canada

Accompanying Exhibition

An exhibition of photographs, sculptures and video works by Berlin-based artist Sonya Schönberger will be presented at the Lightroom Gallery in the Architecture Building.

The exhibition will run from September 16–October 3, 2025. It will open with an Artist Talk on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, from 5:30–8:00 p.m. at the main-level central Pit in the Architecture Building. Exhibition hours are Monday–Friday, 11:00am–4:00pm.

About

Cartographies of Loss: The Afterlives of War will investigate the often-overlooked links between corporeality and cartography. Central to the conference is the question of how to reconcile survivors’ experiences, the voices of the dead, and the need to map post-catastrophic urban infrastructures and ecologies. 

A key theme is the idea of present absence. Reflections on the dead encompass not only mortal remains but also posthumous traces of life lingering in the urban landscape as spectral witnesses to past lives, political violence, and disavowed histories. These absences are active—structuring spaces of habitation, interrupting linear narratives of progress, and refusing closure. Conference collaborators aim to map these afterlives of the dead: the lost, discarded, and ungrievable remainders embedded in the urban present. 

In an era of renewed armed conflicts, geopolitical upheaval, and the erosion of postwar peace structures, a critical question emerges: how to map loss in the face of a politics that violently absents what is present? Addressing this requires a wider range of perspectives on the nature of destruction and loss of life. The conference will ask: How can experiences of survival, loss, and resilience be inclusively and locally represented? How can mapping and emerging technologies document tangible and intangible heritage in post-disaster reconstruction? What is at stake when traces of survival or loss are absent, unrecognized, or erased? 

The conference aims to create a transdisciplinary research network committed to mapping catastrophes and their long-term impacts with compassion and openness. 

Land Acknowledgment

This conference will take place at Carleton University, located in Ottawa, on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation.

We regard these lands with great respect and we recognize and affirm the rights and traditions of our Host Nation.