Fwd: Call for Abstracts: "Islands as Chronotopes: Geographies of Isolation, Imagination, and Interconnection from Antiquity to the Anthropocene"
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Nikoleta Zampaki
Apr 15, 2026, 3:36:15 PMApr 15
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Call for Abstracts
Islands as Chronotopes:
Geographies of Isolation, Imagination, and Interconnection from Antiquity to the Anthropocene
Editors
Nikoleta Zampaki, Adjunct Lecturer, Faculty of English Studies, University of Information Technology and Management, Poland
Scott Slovic, Senior Scientist at the Oregon Research Institute and Distinguished Professor of Environmental Humanities Emeritus at the University of Idaho, U.S.A.
Andreas Markantonatos, Professor of Greek, Faculty of Philology, University of the Peloponnese, Greece
Outline
The study of islands transcends mere physical geography; they are powerful chronotopes, where time and space are densely fused and narratively charged. This special issue traces a continuous thread through island spaces as evolving cultural-geographical constructs,
moving from sites of primordial myth and colonial laboratories to postmodern metaphors and climate change frontlines. The core tension explored is between island-as-isolate (a bounded, paradisiacal or carceral space) and island-as-node (a dynamic hub within
archipelagic networks). This duality shapes human perception, interaction, and impact from ancient voyaging to digital modernity.
In the ancient Western imagination, islands existed on the edge of the known world, serving as mythic and utopian projections. Places like Atlantis (Plato) or the Isles of the Blessed functioned as moral and philosophical allegories, separate from
continental corruption. Simultaneously, in the Pacific and Mediterranean, islands were the antithesis of isolation: they were the vital stepping stones of epic migration (the Austronesian dispersal) and trade (the Phoenician, Greek, and Polynesian voyaging
networks). This period establishes the foundational dialectic: the symbolic isolate versus the lived connector. Medieval maps placed mythical islands alongside real ones, blurring geography with theology, while monastic communities sought spiritual perfection
on isolated isles like Skellig Michael or Iona.
The “Age of Discovery” catalyzed a profound shift. Islands became strategic commodities—fortified stopping points for empires (e.g., St. Helena, Mauritius). More significantly, they were transformed into idealized laboratories for colonial
and scientific exploitation. Their bounded geography made them perfect for controlled social experiments (e.g., Thomas More’s
Utopia inspired real colonial ventures) and ecological transformation. The “plantation complex” was perfected on islands like Barbados and Hispaniola, creating brutal, monocultural economic landscapes. This era saw the imposition of a colonialist cartography,
where islands were renamed, claimed, and mapped as empty possessions, violently disregarding indigenous geographies and connections.
Building on the laboratory concept, Enlightenment naturalists like Joseph Banks and Charles Darwin used islands (the Galápagos, Tahiti) as simplified ecosystems for developing theories of biogeography and evolution. The island became a scientific specimen under glass. Concurrently, the Romantic movement fostered the aesthetic consumption of islands. Their perceived isolation and sublime scenery made them ideal settings for artistic and literary escape, reflection, and inspiration (e.g., Wordsworth’s Lake District islands, Gauguin’s Tahiti). This dual vision—scientific object and poetic idyll—often obscured the ongoing realities of colonial exploitation and indigenous displacement.
By the 19th and early 20th centuries, islands were fully integrated into global imperial systems as coaling stations, naval bases, and cable hubs (e.g., Gibraltar, Aden, Guam). Their value was archipelagic and strategic, controlling sea lanes. Simultaneously, their isolating geography was weaponized for confinement and exclusion: penal colonies (Australia, Devil’s Island), leper colonies (Molokai), and quarantine stations. This period solidified the island as a technology of state power, capable of both projecting force and enforcing segregation, a theme that tragically extends to WWII’s island battlefields and Pacific theater internment camps.
Building on the laboratory concept, Enlightenment naturalists like Joseph Banks and Charles Darwin used islands (the Galápagos, Tahiti) as simplified ecosystems for developing theories of biogeography and evolution. The island became a scientific specimen under glass. Concurrently, the Romantic movement fostered the aesthetic consumption of islands. Their perceived isolation and sublime scenery made them ideal settings for artistic and literary escape, reflection, and inspiration (e.g., Wordsworth’s Lake District islands, Gauguin’s Tahiti). This dual vision—scientific object and poetic idyll—often obscured the ongoing realities of colonial exploitation and indigenous displacement.
By the 19th and early 20th centuries, islands were fully integrated into global imperial systems as coaling stations, naval bases, and cable hubs (e.g., Gibraltar, Aden, Guam). Their value was archipelagic and strategic, controlling sea lanes. Simultaneously, their isolating geography was weaponized for confinement and exclusion: penal colonies (Australia, Devil’s Island), leper colonies (Molokai), and quarantine stations. This period solidified the island as a technology of state power, capable of both projecting force and enforcing segregation, a theme that tragically extends to WWII’s island battlefields and Pacific theater internment camps.
Post-WWII decolonization saw islanders actively reclaiming cultural geographies. Writers like Derek Walcott (St. Lucia) and Édouard Glissant (Martinique) articulated a “poetics of relation,” reimagining the Caribbean not as scattered colonies but
as a dynamic, creolized archipelago with its own center. Meanwhile, the jet age and mass tourism commodity islands as “paradise destinations,” creating fantasy geographies (all-inclusive resorts) that often exist in tension with local communities and ecologies.
Ecologically, islands like the Galápagos became global icons of pristine nature and conservation, even as this “fortress conservation” model sometimes repeated colonial patterns of displacement. The concept of “island biogeography” (MacArthur & Wilson, 1967)
became a dominant ecological theory, influencing global conservation.
Today, the island condition is defined by a paradoxical intensification of both connection and vulnerability. Digital and financial networks have enabled islands to become global hubs for offshore finance, data servers, and niche tourism, challenging the isolation trope. Yet, they are also the canaries in the coal mine of the Anthropocene. Low-lying atoll nations like Kiribati and the Maldives face existential threats from sea-level rise and climate disruption, forcing concepts like “climate refugees” and “sinking sovereignty.” This has spurred new legal and cultural geographies, from claims for climate justice to digital nation projects. Islands are now critical zones for witnessing planetary change, their very boundedness making ecological and social impacts hyper-visible.
The historical journey reveals islands as palimpsests—layered spaces where mythic, colonial, ecological, and digital geographies coexist and conflict. The future of island cultural geography lies in “archipelagic thinking” (after Glissant and DeLoughrey). This perspective views the world not as a collection of continental masses with isolated outliers, but as a planetary archipelago of interconnected hubs, be they islands, cities, or ecosystems. It emphasizes fluidity, relation, and creolization over boundedness. Research will increasingly focus on: 1) Submerged Geographies: mapping lost landscapes and indigenous knowledge in the face of sea-level rise; 2) Digital Archipelagos: how island nations navigate sovereignty in virtual and blockchain spaces; and 3) Justice and Repair: addressing layered traumas of colonialism, militarization, and climate injustice through restorative cultural and environmental practices.
From the mythical to the militarized, from the plantation to the paradise resort, the island has served as a persistent microcosm for human hopes, fears, and interventions. In the 21st century, the planet itself is increasingly conceived as a fragile “island” in the cosmic ocean (Spaceship Earth). Understanding the layered cultural geographies of real islands—their histories of both profound connection and imposed isolation—provides not just a niche study, but an essential framework for navigating an interconnected yet vulnerable world. The island chronotope, therefore, remains a critical space for imagining past, present, and future human geographies.
Today, the island condition is defined by a paradoxical intensification of both connection and vulnerability. Digital and financial networks have enabled islands to become global hubs for offshore finance, data servers, and niche tourism, challenging the isolation trope. Yet, they are also the canaries in the coal mine of the Anthropocene. Low-lying atoll nations like Kiribati and the Maldives face existential threats from sea-level rise and climate disruption, forcing concepts like “climate refugees” and “sinking sovereignty.” This has spurred new legal and cultural geographies, from claims for climate justice to digital nation projects. Islands are now critical zones for witnessing planetary change, their very boundedness making ecological and social impacts hyper-visible.
The historical journey reveals islands as palimpsests—layered spaces where mythic, colonial, ecological, and digital geographies coexist and conflict. The future of island cultural geography lies in “archipelagic thinking” (after Glissant and DeLoughrey). This perspective views the world not as a collection of continental masses with isolated outliers, but as a planetary archipelago of interconnected hubs, be they islands, cities, or ecosystems. It emphasizes fluidity, relation, and creolization over boundedness. Research will increasingly focus on: 1) Submerged Geographies: mapping lost landscapes and indigenous knowledge in the face of sea-level rise; 2) Digital Archipelagos: how island nations navigate sovereignty in virtual and blockchain spaces; and 3) Justice and Repair: addressing layered traumas of colonialism, militarization, and climate injustice through restorative cultural and environmental practices.
From the mythical to the militarized, from the plantation to the paradise resort, the island has served as a persistent microcosm for human hopes, fears, and interventions. In the 21st century, the planet itself is increasingly conceived as a fragile “island” in the cosmic ocean (Spaceship Earth). Understanding the layered cultural geographies of real islands—their histories of both profound connection and imposed isolation—provides not just a niche study, but an essential framework for navigating an interconnected yet vulnerable world. The island chronotope, therefore, remains a critical space for imagining past, present, and future human geographies.
The proposed special issue will likely explore the above-mentioned themes by adopting the following structure:
1. Relationality and Connection
- Focus: Challenges the stereotype of islands as isolated.
- Themes:
- Inter-island networks (historical, cultural, economic).
- Island–mainland linkages.
- Archipelagic thinking — seeing islands as part of a connected system rather than singular entities.
- Maritime routes and diaspora.
2. Resilience and Vulnerability
- Focus: Dual nature of islands as sites of ecological/cultural resilience and climate vulnerability.
- Themes:
- Indigenous knowledge and adaptation strategies.
- Climate change impacts (sea-level rise, storms).
- Political and economic precarity.
- Narratives of survival and innovation.
3. Decolonial and Sovereignty Politics
- Focus: Islands as territories of colonial history and ongoing struggles for self-determination.
- Themes:
- Non-sovereign and postcolonial island status (e.g., overseas territories, independent small states).
- Indigenous sovereignty movements.
- Military occupation and strategic imperialism.
- Cultural reclaiming and language revitalization.
4. Alternative Modernities and World-Making
- Focus: Islands as laboratories for social, ecological, political or digital alternatives.
- Themes:
- Sustainable models (e.g., circular economy, renewable energy).
- Utopian/dystopian imaginaries in island literature and media.
- Alternative governance and social structures.
- Islands in speculative fiction as metaphors for societal experimentation.
- Digital Archipelagos
These four axes together frame islands not just as geographic objects, but as ways of archipelagic thinking — emphasizing connection over isolation, resilience amidst vulnerability, decolonial agency, and innovative futures.
Guidelines
The working language is English.
Please send your topic’s title, abstract of 150 words including a short list of references, five keywords, short bio (100-200 words) including your ORCiD, your full affiliation(s) and e-mail(s) in one Word document (.doc / .docx) titled only with your surname
at the e-mail nzam...@wsiz.edu.pl until the
30th of June 2026 at the very latest.
For any additional information or questions regarding the project, please contact Dr. Zampaki.
--
Dr. Nikoleta Zampaki
Adjunct Lecturer, Department of English Studies, University of Information, Technology and Management, Poland
Academia.edu:
https://en-uoa-gr.academia.edu/NikoletaZampaki
Associate and Managing Editor of Ecokritike:
https://journals.h-net.org/ecokritike/index
Series Editor, Exeter Studies in Environmental Humanities. Past, Present and Future Econarratives at University of Exeter Press:
https://www.exeterpress.co.uk/collections/exeter-studies-in-environmental-humanities
Series Editor, Posthumanities and Citizenship Futures at Bloomsbury:
Assistant and Managing Editor, Brill Research Perspectives in Critical Theory at De Gruyter Brill:
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