Digital mapping projects invite students to explore and interpret geospatial relationships in the humanities. Assignments typically require students to gather significant place-related information (fictional or historical events, census data, travel routes, etc.), then use specialized software to create interactive, visually rich annotated maps of the relevant locations. In the process of creating these maps, students will gain experience in…

  • Finding and evaluating big data with spatial components
  • Building arguments with maps
  • Discovering the spatial dimension in humanities inquiry

Recommended tools

  • StoryMap JS--StoryMap JS allows for users to layer a narrative on top of a map. This can be done using a contemporary map but the application also allows for custom uploads of historical maps or images.
  • Social Explorer--Social Explorer is a GIS application with a variety of datasets preloaded into the application—these datasets range from voting data to historical census data.
  • Carto--Carto is a “freemium” GIS application that allows users to upload custom datasets to produce a wide variety of map types.

Teaching materials