Globalization is no recent phenomenon. People, ideas, and objects have always been on the move, encountering and transforming one another. In the spirit of transformative journeys, the Penn Libraries is proud to present two intersecting events at the Kislak Center,“To the Ends of the Earth” the 2017 Jay I. Kislak Conference and the related exhibit “Expanding Earth: Travel, Encounter, and Exchange.”

“’To the Ends of the Earth’ will explore the transmission and translation of material and cultural practices, cartography, exploration, forced and voluntary migration, and the changing geographies of liminal spaces,” explains conference organizer and Kislak Center curator Mitch Fraas.

​​​​​​​A group of int​​​​​​​ernational scholars from several disciplines—including many young scholars—will examine topics including textual production from early modern Italy to twentieth-century Africa, as well as the racialization of space from Victorian England to nineteenth-century California.

New York University professor Dr. Michael A. Gomez, a leading scholar of Africa and the African Diaspora will deliver the conference’s keynote address. The conference will take place March 2nd-4th, 2017, in the Class of 1978 Pavilion on the sixth floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center.

​​​​​​​Focusing on the years 1400 to 1800, “Expanding Earth: Travel, Encounter, and Exchange” examines and looks beyond familiar Eurocentric ideas of exploration, conquest, and discovery. Using manuscripts, printed books, drawings, maps, and artifacts, this exhibit highlights the movements of peoples, ideas, and goods across the world in their own words and material objects.​​​​​​​

The exhibit will be on display in the Goldstein Family Galley on the sixth floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center from February 9th-May 19th, 2017.

For more information on the exhibit and conference please visit: http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/expandingearth.html

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About the Penn Libraries
The Penn Libraries serve the world-class faculty and students of Penn’s 12 schools. The Libraries’ collections comprise more than 7 million volumes, over 100,000 journals, some 2 million digitized images, and extraordinary rare and unique materials that document the intellectual and cultural experience of ancient and modern civilizations. Through our collaborative relationships, we supplement Penn’s great local collections with physical access to the Center for Research Libraries (approximately 5 million items), the combined holdings of the Ivies (more than 70 million volumes), and exclusive electronic access to some 2 million public domain titles in the HathiTrust. Today, the Libraries play an instrumental role in developing new technologies for information discovery and dissemination and are noted for groundbreaking work in digital library design. To learn more about the Penn Libraries, visit http://www.library.upenn.edu.

About the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts​​​​​​​The Kislak Center is a vibrant space that brings together people, technology and unique content.  Located on the top floor of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, it was redesigned in 2013 to allow several different groups to interact with objects of study simultaneously, increasing the use of primary resources in the University’s curriculum and access to the Libraries’ resources for the larger scholarly community.  Today the Kislak Center encompasses the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Furness Memorial Shakespeare Library, the Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection and the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies. To learn more about the Kislak Center, visit http://www.library.upenn.edu/kislak.