Ed Mathieu to present 'Maps as Lenses on Nazism, 1772 to 1945' on Feb. 23

Western Washington University will host Ed Mathieu for a presentation titled “Maps as Lenses on Nazism, 1772 to 1945” from 4-5 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 23 in the Map Collection area of Western Libraries.

This event is free and open to the public.

Edward Mathieu is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of History at Western. He earned his doctorate in modern German history from the University of Michigan and has taught courses at Western in German history, the Holocaust, gender and sexuality, Western Civilization, and World History.

The Nazi movement emerged from European and global contexts that can be explored geographically. Through the consideration of geography and geographical change, Mathieu will explain how the Nazis imagined the problems of the world and their revolution in spatial terms, and how a geographic sensibility is essential to understanding the practices and effects of Nazism.

Mathieu’s talk will examine maps related to such issues as the German diaspora in Europe, the demography of the Jews in Europe, the partition of Poland in the eighteenth century, the developing space of a united Germany in the nineteenth century, the geography of the First World War and its aftermath, Nazism’s expansionism before and during the Second World War, the geographies of mass murder, and, finally, the geography of the defeat of Nazism.

This event is co-sponsored by Western Libraries, WWU’s Department of History, and the Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity, and is part of the “Speaking of Maps” program, which are quarterly talks designed to highlight the use and value of maps in research, in teaching and learning, and in daily life.

For more information about the Map Collection or about this event, contact Dennis Matthews, WWU Map Collection Manager, at (360) 650-3272 or Dennis.Matthews@wwu.edu