Spatial Histories of Mobility
Does mapping the past change the way we understand it?
Do we learn anything new about a particular historical event or phenomenon by analyzing it in spatial terms?
And if we are serious about telling spatial stories or making spatial arguments, what medium should we use?
In this section of the site you will find representations of 13 spatial history projects. Each is the product of a unique methodology. Each defines historical data differently. Each approaches the question of what can, and what should, be mapped from a different perspective.
In some cases, students have elected to move from their map work to writing traditional history papers. In others, students have elected to integrate their map work into their writing and produce what amounts to a digital essay. Either way, map work was crucial to the process of historical analysis.
Each of these projects is an ambitious, bold, and creative attempt to do spatial history. On this site you can get a sense of the scale of those ambitions and the insights they reveal about the places and spaces of the near and distant past.