Cartography

Week 7

• No Prep
  • Discussion of Final Essay and Final Project work

• Prep:
  • Watch this brief introduction to the Flow Mapper in QGIS.
  • Download the Flowmapper plug-in for Q.
  • Download the Refugee Data from the UN at the bottom of this page and if you can, add it into QGIS as a delimited text layer.
  • In class we will download raster data for the state of Vermont.

Week 8

• Prep
  • Read the last three chapters of Rhumb Lines and Map Wars, linked here.

• Prep
  • Read Wood and Fels, The Natures of Maps, chapters 1 and 3.

• Prep:
  • Look at this webpage on how to add WGS layers
  • Check out this Raster Tutorial on comparing population growth.

• Due today: Isopleth or Flow Map experiments

Week 9

• Prep
  • For a more mind-bending look at how geographic ideas become mutations of the mapped landscape, the first two chapters of Dark Writing (Also an Ebsco book), which talks about 17th and 18th century geographic thinking. Look closely at chapter one and at least begin chapter two.

• Prep
  • Today we will look at some of the European propaganda and political design inherent in Early Modern mapping practices. So first of all, everyone should read Cartography and the Renaissance from the Chicago HOC. Alternatively, if you want to read a different source, chapter 2 of the mapmaker’s quest (it’s an Ebsco book - I recommend downloading - it talks about the artistic origins of Renaissance map making.) After that, there are a bunch of choices.
  • For Imperial mapping, there are a couple of chapters in the HOC on Spanish Colonial Cartography and a more general chapter on Cartography and Exporation. Also, on reserve is the book, Mapping of America. The third chapter, “Early Attempts at Colonization,” goes into the Spanish (and other European) efforts at mapping the new world. It is a detailed discussion of the maps, but is somewhat less interested in maps as power or propaganda. Also, look at chapter three, Challenging Perceptions of Maps that Made History (Ebsco) about English Map making in the Early Modern Period. And lastly, to return to HOC, try either Colonial Cartography in a European Setting, or Colonial Cartography under the Tudor and Early Stuart Monarchies.
  • Oh, and lastly, just in case you’re curious, there’s a short (12 page) article in HOC on Samuel de Champlain’s maps if you’re curious about the French explorer who was the first European to chart Vermont (and for whom lake Champlain is named).

• Prep
  • Read Monmonier, How to lie with maps, chapter 7: "Maps for Political Propaganda" and chapter 8: "Maps, Defense, and Disinformation"

Week 10

• Prep
  • Read Mandelbrot's How Long is the Coast of Great Britain. An alternative, less math-heavy, explanation of the main idea. Read it first if the math of the main article puts you off.
  • Read the quotes from Carroll and Borges on the wikipedia page for On Exactitude in Science.
  • Let's date our globe with xkcd.

• Prep
  • Have read about or watched how the election unfolded (and is unfolding) with a particular eye on maps getting used.
  • Read this NY times piece on their history of election maps.

• Prep
  • Attempt the easier puzzle here. If you get a taste for it, try the hard one too.
  • Read Benjamin Forestry, "The changing demographic, legal, and technological contexts of political representation," from the National Academy of Sciences.
  • Optional extra short reading

Week 11

• Prep:
  • Choose a subject we haven't covered from the Chicago History of Cartography and come to class ready to talk about it for a few minutes and also show some examples. Possible topics include: Prehistoric maps, Chinese practices, Pacific island wave maps, Meso-American practice...anything we haven't yet covered.

• Prep
  • What do you need to be able to do in Q for your final mapping project? Can you do it yet? If not, let us know and we'll work on it today.
  • Optional Drafts of maps or essays for revision

Week 12

• Be ready to work towards either of your projects, or something else.

• Come ready to describe the maps you're writing about

Week 13

• Prep
  • Read Monmonier Chapters 9 (large-scale mapping) and 11 (color).

• Final History Essay due today.

Week 14

• Everyone will present for 5-8 mins on their final map project. (The project with full write-up is not due until 12th Dec, but you should have enough to share and discuss by this point.)

• Any presentations that didn't happen will happen here
• Discussion of how the semester went
• Evaluations and plugs for next semester!

attachments

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UNHRC_-_Refugee_Data_2015.xlsx Oct 20 2016 9:30 am 372kB