BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH PRODID:-//Telerik Inc.//Sitefinity CMS 13.3//EN BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:Call for papers for session at the EAHN 9th Biennial Conference \, Aarhus (17-21 June 2026).Abstracts are invited by September 19\, 2025. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted directly to the ch airs\, along with the applicant&rsquo\;s name\, email address\, profession al affiliation\, address\, telephone number and a short curriculum vitae ( maximum one page).------------------Historically\, guidebooks have propaga ted idealized images of cities. By offering strict selections of buildings \, neighbourhoods and urban itineraries\, guidebooks have consistently rep roduced\, reinforced and multiplied the expectations of readers/travellers . Over the centuries\, this paradigm has been consolidated further by the referentiality and interdependency of this literary genre. Not only succes sive editions of the same book\, but even different authors have reshaped similar content\, imposing a tradition of authority and ideological vision s of urban spaces and landscapes. A case in point is Girolamo Franzini&rsq uo\;s edition of the 1557 book Le Cose Meravigliose dell&rsquo\;Alma Citt& agrave\; di Roma. Republished in 1588 to celebrate the 1590 jubilee\, the booklet established religious itineraries and practices of pilgrimage thro ughout the city. Structured as a limited list of significant places of wor ship\, Le Cose Meravigliose propagated the glories of the capital of Chris tianity by constructing an organised and controlled urban realm for the ec onomies and bodily practices of the Catholic faith. Franzini&rsquo\;s publ ication exemplifies how the guidebook builds urban ideals by normalising p ublic expectations of the city.The construction of a &lsquo\;promised&rsqu o\; city comes with the assumption that many of the more complex variables that shape urban space (local economies\, collective spaces\, social tens ions\, morphological transformations\, environmental conditions&hellip\;) are irrelevant to urban exploration. Instead\, guidebooks tend to produce simplified and individualized contexts and often operate under the assumpt ion that cities are limitless resources. Through the guidebook\, cities ar e presented as objects of temporary consumption\, shaped into idealized sp aces of organised\, tailored movement\, yet they are also adaptable to any community of readers/travellers.This session seeks to study when and how cities have historically clashed with the environmental\, social\, religio us\, political\, and cultural idealization provided by guidebooks. We expl ore how guidebooks have abstracted\, codified\, and rendered the threshold s between the marketable city\, the expectations of the reader/traveller a nd the limits of the urban realm. We are especially interested in the ways in which a specific image of the environment (urban\, natural\, social&he llip\;) has been idealised\, and how this projected and mediatised reality relates with the more complex conditions of a place and the experience of the individual. We are interested in collecting the widest possible spect rum of this publicly produced type of media (pamphlets\, maps\, booklets&h ellip\;)\, from all periods and geographies.Possible themes include\, but are not limited to:- Material histories of guidebooks and of their product ion through specific interests and cultural projects (propagandistic\, pol itical\, religious\, financial&hellip\;)\; \;- Written histories of a place (buildings\, cities\, landscapes&hellip\;) through its mediatization and its exploration\; \;- Histories of tourism and travel through the individual or collective experiences of guidebooks (travel writing\, diar ies&hellip\;)\;- Environmental histories of places as interrelated\, depen dent\, or opposed to the urban environment\;- Digital humanities projects that explore the movements of the reader/traveller in the city.Abstracts a re invited by September 19\, 2025. Abstracts of no more than 300 words sho uld be submitted directly to the chairs\, along with the applicant&rsquo\; s name\, email address\, professional affiliation\, address\, telephone nu mber and a short curriculum vitae (maximum one page). DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250920 DTSTAMP:20250901T060005Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250828 LOCATION:Denmark\,Aarhus SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:Call for Papers: The Book\, The Self\, and the City: Architectural Histories of Guidebooks and Urban Idealizations UID:RFCALITEM638923032054447552 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Call for papers for session at the EAHN 9th Biennial Conference\, Aarhus (17-21 June 2026).

Abstracts are invited by September 19\, 2025. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted directly to the chairs\, along with the applicant&rsquo\;s n ame\, email address\, professional affiliation\, address\, telephone numbe r and a short curriculum vitae (maximum one page).

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Historically\, guidebooks have propagated idealized images of ci ties. By offering strict selections of buildings\, neighbourhoods and urba n itineraries\, guidebooks have consistently reproduced\, reinforced and m ultiplied the expectations of readers/travellers. Over the centuries\, thi s paradigm has been consolidated further by the referentiality and interde pendency of this literary genre. Not only successive editions of the same book\, but even different authors have reshaped similar content\, imposing a tradition of authority and ideological visions of urban spaces and land scapes. A case in point is Girolamo Franzini&rsquo\;s edition of the 1557 book Le Cose Meravigliose dell&rsquo\;Alma Città\; di Roma. Republis hed in 1588 to celebrate the 1590 jubilee\, the booklet established religi ous itineraries and practices of pilgrimage throughout the city. Structure d as a limited list of significant places of worship\, Le Cose Meraviglios e propagated the glories of the capital of Christianity by constructing an organised and controlled urban realm for the economies and bodily practic es of the Catholic faith. Franzini&rsquo\;s publication exemplifies how th e guidebook builds urban ideals by normalising public expectations of the city.

The construction of a &lsquo\;promised&rs quo\; city comes with the assumption that many of the more complex variabl es that shape urban space (local economies\, collective spaces\, social te nsions\, morphological transformations\, environmental conditions&hellip\; ) are irrelevant to urban exploration. Instead\, guidebooks tend to produc e simplified and individualized contexts and often operate under the assum ption that cities are limitless resources. Through the guidebook\, cities are presented as objects of temporary consumption\, shaped into idealized spaces of organised\, tailored movement\, yet they are also adaptable to a ny community of readers/travellers.

This sessio n seeks to study when and how cities have historically clashed with the en vironmental\, social\, religious\, political\, and cultural idealization p rovided by guidebooks. We explore how guidebooks have abstracted\, codifie d\, and rendered the thresholds between the marketable city\, the expectat ions of the reader/traveller and the limits of the urban realm. We are esp ecially interested in the ways in which a specific image of the environmen t (urban\, natural\, social&hellip\;) has been idealised\, and how this pr ojected and mediatised reality relates with the more complex conditions of a place and the experience of the individual. We are interested in collec ting the widest possible spectrum of this publicly produced type of media (pamphlets\, maps\, booklets&hellip\;)\, from all periods and geographies.

Possible themes include\, but are not limited to:
- Material histories of guidebooks and of their production t hrough specific interests and cultural projects (propagandistic\, politica l\, religious\, financial&hellip\;)\; \;
- Written histories of a place (buildings\, cities\, landscapes&hellip\;) through its mediati zation and its exploration\; \;
- Histories of tourism and t ravel through the individual or collective experiences of guidebooks (trav el writing\, diaries&hellip\;)\;
- Environmental histories of pl aces as interrelated\, dependent\, or opposed to the urban environment\;
- Digital humanities projects that explore the movements of the r eader/traveller in the city.

Abstracts are invi ted by September 19\, 2025. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted directly to the chairs\, along with the applicant&rsquo\;s name\ , email address\, professional affiliation\, address\, telephone number an d a short curriculum vitae (maximum one page).

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