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http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/32787| Title: | Maps and Diaspora: Affect, Agency and Epistolary Praxis |
| Authors: | Rai, R Singh, I |
| Keywords: | affective cartography;archival maps;epistolary praxis;Himalaya;Hindustan |
| Issue Date: | 3-Feb-2026 |
| Publisher: | Wiley on behalf of Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) |
| Citation: | Rai, R. and Singh, I. (2026) 'Maps and Diaspora: Affect, Agency and Epistolary Praxis', Area, 0 (ahead of print), e70098, pp. 1 - 8. doi: 10.1111/area.70098. |
| Abstract: | Following discussions, interactions and reflections during the 2024 Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) conference ‘Map Room Conversations’ sessions, this paper examines archival maps in relation to diaspora through an affective lens. Using an auto-ethnographic epistolary praxis of letter-writing and the therapeutic prompt ‘What came up for you?’, it aims to bring out marginalised narratives and enable diasporic subjects to reclaim agency over their histories and identities. As a medium for the performativity of memory, letter-writing enables affective engagement with maps of ‘Hindustan’ and ‘Himalaya’, facilitating access to suppressed emotions and genealogical narratives, shifting away from viewing maps as merely colonial artefacts and repositioning them as ‘mediators’ of diasporic affect and agency, thus animating them as sites of remembering, reconnecting and healing. |
| Description: | Data Availability Statement:
The data that support the findings of this study that include historical maps are available from the Royal Geographical Society—with the Institute of British Geographers. Restrictions may apply to the availability of these data, which may be under licence. Data are used by the authors with the permission of the Royal Geographical Society—with the Institute of British Geographers. This article also appears in: Map Room Conversations (https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1111/(ISSN)1475-4762.map-room-conv). |
| URI: | https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/32787 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1111/area.70098 |
| ISSN: | 0004-0894 |
| Other Identifiers: | ORCiD: Rohini Rai https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5068-6539 Article number: e70098 |
| Appears in Collections: | Dept of Social and Political Sciences Research Papers |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FullText.pdf | Copyright © 2026 The Author(s). Area published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. | 1.8 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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