This website seeks to explore the opportunities and challenges in utilizing GIS and other geospatial technologies in Humanities research. We hope to document our own research within this exciting new area of inquiry in both Geography and traditional Humanities disciplines, as well as link to other related research and interesting projects.
Just a few of the questions our work seeks to answer regarding the integration of Humanities and Geographic Information Science include:
- What does GIS offer to the humanities?
- How do humanities scholars use maps or spatial information in their analytical framework?
- Where can humanities researchers use geospatial technologies to the greatest effect?
- What role can geovisualization play in conveying humanities information?
Geospatial technologies now allow researchers to move far beyond the static paper map to explore dynamic representations, to move from passive systems to interactive systems, from two dimensions to multidimensional representations, and to work in geovisualization, graphical data analysis, exploratory spatial data analysis, and virtual reality, in addition to the use of standalone GIS. These technologies offer considerable opportunity, yet untapped, for the advancement of the humanities. As our work here at the Laboratory of GIScience progresses, we hope to demonstrate a number of applications of Humanities GIS through this website, and invite other scholars to share their own experiences and research.