Day 1: Introduction to spatial visualization in/for digital humanities research

Welcome! Today we will introduce key ideas and critical methods in cartography and geographic information science, and, discuss how maps, as spatial representations, function in digital scholarship and humanities research. In the afternoon, we will talk about spatial data and how to find, download, and properly format data for use in various spatial visualization platforms. Finally, we will provide a project design worksheet to structure your learning throughout the week.

Morning Session 11am - 12pm

• Course Overview + Instructor Introductions
• Participant Introductions
• Introduce Group Project

Afternoon Session 1:30pm - 4pm

• Lecture on Spatial Visualization in/for Digital Humanities Research
• Thematic vs. Reference maps
• Project Design Fundamentals
• Intro to Spatial Data

Before Tomorrow

1. Review the Project Design Worksheet and fill in what you can
2. Spatialize your data if you want to map with it tomorrow
3. Review and complete pre-workshop tasks outlined in the website landing page

Some readings and resources on Spatial Visualization in DH Research

• Special Issue in the Journal of Map & Geography Libraries on Working Digitally with Historical Maps
• Special issue in the Journal of Spatial Humanities and Libraries on Spatial Humanities: Perspectives from the Library
• Towards the Spatial Analysis of Vague and Imaginary Place and Space: Evolving the Spatial Humanities through Medieval Romance
• Lessons and tutorials from the Programming Historian
• Lessons and tutorials from The Geospatial Historian
• Designing for discovery: using web maps in the digital humanities
• Hands-On Data Visualization documentation by Jack Dougherty & Ilya Ilyankou
• Tufts resource on Geospatial Humanities

Examples of Spatial Visualization in DH Research

• Mapping the Black Digital and Public Humanities
• Geocoding the Expansion of Fictional Space in Russian 19th-Century Literature
• Victorian Britain Author Addresses Geocoding project
• Old Toronto Itinerary project
• Queer Sapphic New York (Click on the arrow)
• The Mapping Prejudice Project
• Don Valley Historical Map Project
• Hidden Florence
• The Italian-Canadian Foodways Map project

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Table of contents

• Activity
• Reference vs. Thematic
• Project Design
• What is Spatial Data?
• Data Wrangling