Writing Travel in the Twenty-First Century: Mobility and Authenticity in the Planetary Emergency (MAP)

Technology is changing our sense of place

MAP looks at how novel and different types of physical forms of travel—from slow, local trips to fast, global ones, from extraterrestial and interplanetary travel—may be changing or even replacing traditional forms of travel writing. The project also examines how digital media has changed the way in which travel is documented as of how it is produced and disseminated.

Using critical perspectives from postcolonial studies, environmental thinking, and digital humanities, the research project will offer new insights into how travel writing works today. MAP thus explores how travel stories reflect bigger issues like who gets to travel, how travel affects the planet, and how technology is changing our sense of place, but also our sense of self.

The goal is to better understand how we imagine movement, distance, and connection in a world that is connected as never before, but also a planet that is in crisis.