Course Syllabus
Methods in Spatial Research
Abridged Syllabus below.
Spring 2024
Friday 9-11, session A
1.5 credits
Ware Lounge
Adam Vosburgh
adam (dot) vosburgh (at) columbia.edu
office hours by appointment, sign up here
Description
This course provides an introduction to the critical use of geographic information systems (GIS) and the use of spatial methods for urban humanities research.
Maps and geographic analysis are key tools for interpreting the built environment and the social conditions it contains. GIS methods allow for the analysis of geographic features together with attributes (environmental, social, demographic, political) of those places. The thoughtful use of spatial data can reveal previously unseen patterns, changing the way we see and engage with our world. However, maps are never just representations, they are nearly always active agents in shaping the worlds they describe. With this in mind, students will be introduced to a range of approaches for creating and manipulating spatial data with a focus on the forms of authorship, design, subjectivity embedded in spatial data and its uses.
This is a "making & doing" workshop course that is open to students from within GSAPP, GSAS and the Columbia and Barnard Colleges and is designed to expand the disciplinary locations in which spatial data analysis takes place. Through hands-on exercises and weekly assignments participants will develop basic fluency with open-source mapping software, QGIS, methods of data collection and creation, and approaches and concepts in critical spatial analysis and map design.
Learning Objectives
After completing the course participants will:
- Develop robust familiarity with QGIS and its functions
- Gain fluency with foundational GIS concepts (including how the GIS data model abstracts geographic phenomena)
- Understand GIS spatial data types and the kinds of analysis that are possible with each
- Create new spatial datasets from field observation and participatory sensing
- Create new spatial datasets from archival sources
- Access and use multispectral satellite imagery
- Acquire fluency with visual design concepts central to cartographic representations