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Why do we draw journeys as lines on maps? Sara Caputo discusses how oceanic navigation and cartographical 'ship tracks', from the Renaissance onwards, have profoundly shaped our understanding of movement. 

About the speaker

Dr Sara Caputo is a historian at the University of Cambridge, researching maritime spaces and societies. She is Senior Research Fellow and Director of Studies in History at Magdalene College, and a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science.

She has published two books: Foreign Jack Tars: The British Navy and Transnational Seafarers during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and Tracks on the Ocean: A History of Trailblazing, Maps and Maritime Travel (Profile Books and The University of Chicago Press, 2024). 

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