About the Institute |
Become a Fellow |
Institute Schedule |
Instructor Bios |
Institute Purpose and Need
The Institute will focus on expanding the scope and practice of deep mapping by integrating public-facing, transdisciplinary scholarship into the spatial humanities. Our aim is to move from the established robust theories and concepts of deep mapping towards developing a foundation of practice, with a specific emphasis on supporting community histories through the use of advanced spatial and digital technologies. Institute fellows will receive instruction from leading experts in the digital and spatial humanities and a wide-range of heritage fields. They will apply their new skills with advanced geospatial tools, and visualization/interpretive techniques, by each creating a prototype deep map using data drawn from their own active research programs.
Institute Objectives
The NEH Community Deep Mapping Institute is drawing together a group of participants who have shared interests in the digital and spatial humanities, as well as individual expertise in archaeology, geography, history, heritage, interpretation, public history, and community-based research.
The institute has four central objectives:
This institute's key focus is the 'doing of deep mapping'. As an expected outcome, each institute participant will have built a prototype (or more advanced) community-centered, public-facing deep map in an area of their interest. Fellows will leave with the tools, resources, and a network of experts that will support continued development of their deep maps.
The institute has four central objectives:
- Train new and established scholars and professionals in the use and coupling together of advanced geospatial tools to advance approaches in doing deep mapping.
- Establish best practices for creating public-facing deep maps through community-based research, design, and evaluation processes.
- Determine methods for, and approaches to, applying augmented and mobile technologies that create immersive experiences built upon the robust historical spatial data infrastructures that form the basis of many current deep mapping projects such as the Keweenaw Time Traveler and Hamtramck Spatial Archaeology Project.
- Demonstrate how transdisciplinary collaborations will contribute to building more inclusive communities of practice across academic fields and between academic-based scholars and non-academic heritage practitioners.
This institute's key focus is the 'doing of deep mapping'. As an expected outcome, each institute participant will have built a prototype (or more advanced) community-centered, public-facing deep map in an area of their interest. Fellows will leave with the tools, resources, and a network of experts that will support continued development of their deep maps.
What is Community Deep Mapping?
Deep maps integrate information and representations about space, time, architecture, material culture, environment, and community knowledge into a spatially and temporally scaled digital platform that affords open-ended exploration of a particular time and place (Bodenhamer, Corrigan, Harris 2013; Ridge, Lafreniere, Nesbit 2013). Deep maps are discursive resources that can be designed to visualize changes in human-environmental relationships over time and to accommodate multiple voices in the creation of community-based narratives. Over the past decade, alongside the growth of digital and spatial humanities scholarship, researchers from a range of humanities fields have succeeded in developing disciplinary-specific theoretical approaches to deep maps. However, the potential of deep mapping and recognition of its broader intellectual impacts in the humanities have not yet been fully realized because of the lack of transdisciplinary and public collaboration. This institute, will, for the first time, bring together an otherwise disparate group of scholars and professionals to expand the scope and refine the practices of doing deep mapping together.
Institute Overview
The NEH Community Deep Mapping Institute will bring together 37 total participants from a wide range of backgrounds and experience to learn how to apply community-based practices and methods together with technical experience to develop a suite of new deep mapping projects in the areas of interest and for the communities important to the institute fellows. Yes, you will be making your own public-facing deep map!
Institute fellows will learn a wide range of technical and professional skills that are needed to successfully develop their own deep mapping projects.
These include but are not limited to:
Institute fellows will learn a wide range of technical and professional skills that are needed to successfully develop their own deep mapping projects.
These include but are not limited to:
- Identifying archival and digital sources
- Basic GIS skills such as geocoding, georeferencing and digitizing
- Digital spatial storytelling and placemaking
- Public engagement with deep maps
- Creating historical spatial data infrastructures
- No-code/low code mobile apps for deep mapping
- Constructing historical built and social environments
- Outreach and education plans for deep mapping projects
- Integrating deep maps with augmented and mobile technologies
