the Ethnography and Social Theory Colloquia Series 2016 presents
Mapping as Process, Product, and Provocation
A presentation by William Rankin
Monday, September 26th at 4:00 pm
Room 105, 10 Sachem St./Department of Anthropology
“Maps and mapping are central to the recent interest in spatial research and digital scholarship. But what kinds of maps should we be making, and how should we respond to the suggestion that data-driven mapping provides a newly “scientific” viewpoint lacking in other methods? I’ll make the case for a humanist mapping practice that doesn’t require major infrastructure – one that can include everything from simple illustrations to big-data analysis.”
Dr. William Rankin is Assistant Professor of the History of Science at Yale University. He has recently come out with his first book, After the Map: Cartography, Navigation, and the Transformation of Territory in the Twentieth Century (University of Chicago Press, 2016), which is a history of the mapping sciences in the twentieth century. In addition to his historical work, Bill is also an award-winning cartographer, and his maps have been published and exhibited widely in the US, Europe, and Asia. Most of this work is available on his website, www.radicalcartography.net, maintained since 2003. He is also happy to field questions about specific mapping dilemmas or projects during the colloquium.