John Milton's 1644 declaration that 'Books are not absolutely dead things' makes him a rock star among undergraduate English majors who are covetous of the material, reassuringly physical book. This essay explores that metonymic dichotomy through a project that combined the 'old' technology of the hand-press book and the 'new' technology of GIS story-telling. Using a visiting special collection of rare books for students at a small college, the project approached hand-press era books in three phases: 1) a bibliographic description and transcription; 2) book forensics, and 3) a 'deep map' of a book. With mapping-understood as an expression of spatial thinking-as a guide, students recognized that the singular text, even the dialogic text, is far less remarkable than locating and articulating the links between history, place, literature, and culture. Students engaged with terminology (descriptive bibliography), recognized the temporal lines of the book as an object (provenance), followed the development of a book as a polyglotous intellectual entity, and reviewed the geographic/historical experiences of the author and of the book (biography, publishing). The spatial turn allowed students to construct (and in some cases, deconstruct) the cultural world in which texts, authors and printers collide.
Representations of Zimbabwean migrants to South Africa, in scholarship as well as the media, have tended to focus on the often spectacular violence experienced by these migrants. Southern African literary criticism, too, has often privileged the visual, the ocular, and the spectacle. In this article, I focus on a different sensory dimension: the literary representation of sound. I show how sound and soundscapes, as represented in selected literary works, can illuminate everyday aspects of migratory experiences. I focus on aurality, arguing that listening provides a new methodology for reading and interpreting migrant fiction about the lived experiences of Black Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa. Building on theories of the soundscape, I examine how literary representations of migrant listening practices are deployed to comment on lived experiences, and how migrant literary characters' encounters with other migrants illuminate the layered dimensions of forced migration. I argue that a sound-focused analysis of literary works, rather than a focus on the representation of visual spectacle and description, can give readers access to the sense of rootlessness experienced by migrants. Such an aural approach demonstrates that literary and creative works are useful archives of subverted and denied claims of belonging premised on ancestry and geography.
The abundance of information contained in nineteenth-century texts means the traditional ‘close reading’ of Victorian culture has limitations. With the burgeoning availability of newspapers in digital format, there is a pressing need to look at how we might effectively and efficiently use these digital resources to help answer research questions and add to key historical and geographical debates. Focusing on the analysis of a large digital corpus, this paper has two key foci: (I) to apply an innovative digital methodology, that combines corpus linguistics and geospatial technologies, to a very large corpus of newspaper texts and; (II) apply said methodology to a case study assessing the presentation of health and disease in a nineteenth-century newspaper. The paper illustrates that by linking existing techniques with new and innovative approaches it is possible to temporally and spatially analyse and map themes of interest in large digital corpora on a scale not possible through more traditional close reading methods.
This article serves a two-fold purpose: first, to give an overview of the project HGIS de las Indias, and second to ask for its relation with the epistemological currents in spatial humanities, thereby raising some fundamental thoughts and inquietudes about the relationship between projects designed for accommodating particular practical needs and overarching theory. In the first part, thus, we will sketch the initial impulse that made the project come to life; then, we will outline the basic structure, features, and general characteristics of the database and its web application, briefly commenting on how that database design correlates and conflicts with the ontologies of historical sources underlying the reconstruction process. In the second part, we will try to tackle the question of whether projects of such tailoring should have a place within the spatial humanities, which seem to have shifted or solidified their epistemological center in poststructuralist, postmodern, postcolonial, and neo-geographic discourses, advocating for a reflected employment of digital spatial tools focussing on their different roles within the humanities instead of enforcing a growing divide between a theoretical navel-gazing and an atheoretical practice.
Primary historical source materials represent a very real challenge to GIS. In contrast to modern datasets where tabulated and structured data usually correspond neatly to fixed boundary units, primary historical source materials occur in predominantly unstructured text format. In these instances, people, events, and places must be unraveled from handwritten scripts and, if possible, subsequently linked and coupled to some form of mapping. In this paper, a database solution to handling primary source material is discussed that enables the original text and its translation to be ingested into the system and for people, familial relations, events, and images to be linked and queried in real time. In particular, the system connects these databases via toponyms to a tightly coupled mapping interface. The system enables thesauri of people's names and places to be created on-the-fly and allows levels of confidence to be assigned by the investigator to these matches. Full database and toponymic search and linking capability is enabled. In addition, a mobile application supports investigation in the field to access details in the databases at the same time as ingesting additional data and information in real-time to the system. Through the use of this dynamic database coupling and union to a map interface it is proposed that the system provides a powerful platform for use with primary unstructured source material and contributes to a deeper mapping and understanding of historical place.
Digital Humanities (DH) is a dynamic and developing field. In recent years, its evolution has been witnessed foremost in the growth of funded DH projects and through the willingness of scholars from diverse backgrounds to not only work in DH research, but also as 'digital humanists'. One crucial component to DH research is that of spatial enquiry, the expansion of which has rapidly evolved from a small component often found buried in research objectives, to the research aim of a growing number of projects. Spatial humanities, while still a relatively new interdisciplinary field, is exhibiting continued advancement and focus from the academic community; however, working with digital data is rarely a straightforward pursuit, even for the most accomplished scholar. Primarily access to appropriate and reliable (spatial) datasets, the keystone of spatial humanities research, the sharing and openness of spatial methods, tools and data (SMTD), and education in the former, all remain a challenge. Witnessing the continued rise of spatial humanities research, this special issue brings together a selection of articles delivered at Spatial Humanities 2016, a conference held at Lancaster University (UK). The aim of this multi-disciplinary conference was to explore and demonstrate the contribution to knowledge that spatial technologies in humanities research may enable within and beyond the digital humanities. Here, this introductory text and associated articles present key research that embodies the growing relevance of the spatial humanities across a plethora of fields and demonstrates several of the prevailing and enduring struggles when working in digital and spatial research. These articles emphasise that, despite common obstacles, spatial humanists make up an imaginative and thriving community keen to share innovation and knowledge and provide stimulating new insights through research.
For three years now, a research group at the University of Santiago de Compostela has been working on the creation of literary maps of Compostela. 1 In this application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to literature, with the focus on a city of remarkable symbolic relevance, problems emerged, mainly concerning the mappeability of uncertainty and the codification of recurrence and emotions. The point of departure was a very precise group of texts belonging to the subgenre of the ‘estudiantina’ that depict the life of Santiago University students at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. In this paper, we intend to present the results, showing the achievements, the limits and the new challenges that emerged. Literary cartographies have proved useful for the study of symbolic production and for tourism. Less attention has been paid to its applicability to education, and yet, the tools used so far for creating literary cartographies can be applied to the study of literary texts produced by students, so that the resulting maps and graphics cast important information for the analysis of how students understand and deal with places, how they relate to the cities they live in and, thereby, reveal the constitution of their mental maps. In this paper, we will compare literary maps of Santiago obtained on the one hand from the database created with the ‘Estudiantina’ and, on the other, from the database of 40 texts written by current students. Taking the maps as a point of departure, we will reflect on the historical changes in the imaginary of the city and the way it is perceived, inhabited and lived by current students.
This article presents the technical characteristics of the Belgian STREAM-project (2015–2019). The goal of STREAM is to facilitate and innovate historical research into local and regional processes through the development of a spatiotemporal infrastructure for early modern Brabant and Flanders, two of the most urbanized and developed areas of pre-industrial Europe. To this end, STREAM systematically collects a range of key data from a diversity of historical sources to provide a geographically comprehensive and long-run quantitative and spatial account of early modern society at the local level (parishes, villages, towns) regarding territory, transport, demography, agriculture, industry and trade, related to the development of a tailored historical geographical information system (GIS) based on the well-known Ferraris map (1770–1778). This article discusses the possibilities and pitfalls of the data collection and the construction of a spatial infrastructure for the pre-statistical era.
High impact learning experiences hold forth great promise for enhancing the personal and intellectual development of students. First year experience abroad offers opportunities for students to explore a study abroad topic in depth at an early point in their academic career. Recently, significant numbers of faculty have begun to lead study abroad groups on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Due to the increasing popularity of walking the Camino overall, overcrowding and other related issues are becoming a problem. I propose that faculty leading student groups on the Camino incorporate digital mapping tools as part of the curriculum to increase awareness among students about the potential impact they may have on local communities. Furthermore, the use of digital mapping tools to either complement or replace the more traditionally assigned journal will help the student meet the desired learning outcomes set forth by the first year experience abroad program—develop, experience and reflect. By understanding spatial relationships, students will ask questions and make connections that they otherwise would not have.
A central challenge in short-term study abroad programs is making sure that students have meaningful interactions with people abroad, something that scholarship has shown to be tremendously beneficial, both for linguistic gains and for cross-cultural exchange. This article examines the potential benefits of collaborative mapping for encouraging student interaction with local residents, while also considering the value of spatial analysis to the interdisciplinary aims of a course centered on theatre and French Studies. One author is a cultural anthropologist and professor of French, and the other is a professor of theatre. The course explores theatre as a window into French society and culture in three distinct geographic settings (Avignon and the rural Vaucluse, Marseille, and Paris). Space is important to its study of theatrical literature, of theatrical form and site-specific performance, and of the varied meanings of theatre to people living in diverse social environments, including rural settings and neighborhoods in urban centers and peripheries. Written prior to implementing the project for the 2017 version of the course, this article examines a mapping project intended to fully exploit the opportunities of study abroad for student engagement with other perspectives abroad, and for interdisciplinary dialogue and exchange.
This essay articulates the concept of 'critical chorography' through a discussion of the productive intersection of pedagogy in the spatial humanities and map theory as applied to the visualization of early modern maps using contemporary GIS technology. In method, the essay lays out a comparative model for the analysis of maps across early modern and contemporary digital practices by theorizing student-driven practices of mapping first through a deep attention to historical location and documentary evidence, and second, through an inquiry into the digital implications of mapping jurisdictional conflicts through case studies focused on westward expansion in the West Indies. To those ends, the essay examines the drive in contemporary spatial humanities to use the map as a tool of analysis, rather than merely as a platform for visualization and presentation.
This essay addresses drawbacks to short-term study abroad courses offered at small liberal-arts colleges, as well as difficulties students encounter in such courses. These difficulties arise due to the extremely full itineraries that the course structure may seek to provide, which can become overly burdensome to students in terms of what they are able to process fully, and what they retain during the course and after the course is over. One avenue of possible amelioration of this difficulty, while not challenging the opportunity to expose students to a wide range of sites and course-topical material, is a reliance on mapping. In terms of pre-travel, the map serves as orientation, a setting of expectations for what will be seen. During the course, while onsite, students are able to use the supplemental materials offered on the interactive map better to understand their surroundings. After the course, revisiting the map, along with their course notes, photos, and journals, provides an essential aide-mémoire. Choosing potential sites for extensive mapping based on those sites students are least familiar with is a way, then, to maximize the map's impact on learning outcomes.
As destination of choice for many short-term study abroad programs, Berlin offers students of German language, culture and history a number of sites richly layered with significance. The complexities of these sites and the competing narratives that surround them are difficult for students to grasp in a condensed period of time. Using approaches from the spatial humanities, this article offers a case study for enhancing student learning through the creation of digital maps and itineraries in a campus-based course for subsequent use during a three-week program in Berlin. In particular, the concept of deep mapping is discussed as a means of augmenting understanding of the city and its history from a narrative across time to a narrative across the physical space of the city. As itineraries, these course-based projects were replicated on site. In moving from the digital environment to the urban landscape, this article concludes by noting meanings uncovered and narratives formed as we moved through the physical space of the city.
While the humanities embraced the value of spatial analysis some time ago; political science has yet to marry traditional social science methods with the visual and interactive process of mapping. Some may consider mapping, or spatial analysis, as descriptive without much analytical power. This project argues for the introduction to mapping to a course in the social sciences. My colleague Paul Achter and I and teach a course on The Wire, a critically acclaimed series from David Simon aired on HBO, is a five-part series on the problems facing the City of Baltimore. The Wire is uniquely suited to 'deep mapping' because of the role of city spaces in every season. The City of Baltimore is a character as much as any of the human characters in the series. Initiating a class project on creating and developing a spatial map of The Wire locations as a way of understanding Simon's critique of contemporary political and social policy. Politics drive economic disparity and public and private decisions about the use of spaces. A deep map of The Wire could connect episodes spatially to reveal the relationship between location and opportunity, safety, justice, access to jobs, and quality of schools
Story Maps and Disability Studies: A Digital Blueprint for Teaching Community Engagement argues that the spatial humanities and disability studies can highlight for students how classroom discussions are connected to public discourse concerning issues of access. This article examines an interdisciplinary project that uses digital cartography to introduce students to concepts in disability studies in order to get them engaged with issues of social justice within their community. The assignment asks students to map the nexus of power relations that they find in their community using digital tools such as ARC GIS and story maps software. This article provides a history of the assignment along with the assignment's framework including the reading list and classroom activities. Story Maps and Disability Studies concludes with a critical reflection on the assignment's educational goals, student projects, and future revisions to the project.
This contribution reflects on the value of plurality in the 'network with a thousand entrances' suggested by McCarty (http://goo.gl/H3HAfs), and others, in association with approaching time-honoured annotative and commentary practices of much-engaged texts. The question is how this approach aligns with tensions, today, surrounding the multiplicity of endeavour associated with modeling practices of annotation by practitioners of the digital humanities. Our work, hence, surveys annotative practice across its reflection in contemporary praxis, from the MIT annotation studio whitepaper (http://goo.gl/8NBdnf) through the work of the Open Annotation Collaboration (http://www.openannotation.org), and manifest in multiple tools facilitating annotation across the web up to and including widespread application in social knowledge creation suites like Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web annotation)
Annotation and research in the humanities are tightly coupled. Annotations can be seen as expressions of research activity which can be turned into input data for subsequent research. The digital paradigm has profoundly altered the ways in which we humans can handle the information content of our sources and it also affects the practice of annotation. We explore new ways of annotation that were not feasible before the digital times, and we list a few requirements for annotation to act as a reliable source of research information. Rather than conducting an academic discussion on the ontology of annotations, we highlight practical use cases for new kinds of annotations. We illustrate those in a concrete system for linguistic annotations to the Hebrew Bible, SHEBANQ.
This paper showcases a counter-mapping project with the Tlingit and Tagish peoples of the circumpolar north. Engaging critically with the evolving theory and practice of deep mapping we reveal how collaborative water research designed to provide a framework for indigenous water legislation is expressed visually on a Google Earth platform. This aquatic counter-map, or as we call it, a deep chart, not only empowers the Tlingit and Tagish, but reclaims and revitalises critical cultural values, whilst simultaneously preserving linguistic and cultural memory in a digital form. More broadly, the deep chart is currently being brought into global water ethic debates as a visual ethnocartographic example of an alternative relationship humans might have with water, paving the way for a new water consciousness. This is in direct contrast to current, dominant and sometimes destructive global water governance and water management models and practices.We showcase a participatory and aqua-centric deep charting paradigm that is evolving through Geographics Information Science (GIS) platforms in collaboration with the CTFN (Tlingit and Tagish) community and government. This research challenges the contemporary cartography of the dominant Anglo-American valuing of water. It also presents an alternative water vision that we argue can shift 'terra-centric' thinking towards 'aqua-centric' thinking. It further provides a blueprint for informing global water ethics debates.
