Session 6: Geography 3: GIS

Date: Thursday, November 3, 2016, 16h00 (UK time)

Session coordinator: Leif Isaksen (Lancaster University)

###Outline

In this session we will look at the most commonly-used spatial technology: Geographic Information Systems (GIS). We will cover the basic principles underlying it, offer a brief overview of the interface of QGIS, a Free and Open Source GIS package, survey some of the applications of GIS most frequently used by humanists, and finish with a discussion of its limitations as well as the opportunities it provides.

###Required reading

Weiss, C. 2010. Determining Function of Pompeian Sidewalk Features through GIS Analysis, in: Frischer, B., J. Webb Crawford and D. Koller (eds.) Making History Interactive. Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA). Proceedings of the 37th International Conference, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States of America, March 22-26 2009. Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 363-372

Poluschny, A.G. 2010. Over the Hills and Far Away? Cost Surface Based Models of Prehistoric Settlement Hinterlands, in: Frischer, B., J. Webb Crawford and D. Koller (eds.) Making History Interactive. Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA). Proceedings of the 37th International Conference, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States of America, March 22-26 2009. Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 313-319

###Further readings

Donaldson, Christopher, Gregory, Ian, & Murietta-Flores, P., 2015. Mapping 'Wordsworthshire': A GIS Study of Literary Tourism in Victorian Lakeland. Journal of Victorian Culture Volume 20, Issue 3.

Drucker, Johanna. 2012. Humanistic Theory and Digital Scholarship. In Gold, M. & Klein L. F. (eds.) Debates in the Digital Humanities. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press

###Essay title

‘The theoretical underpinnings of humanistic interpretation are fundamentally at odds with the empirical approaches on which certain conventions of…spatial modeling are based' (Drucker 2012). Discuss the validity of this statement with regard to GIS.

###Practical exercise

tba