Spatial Data Analysis in the Humanities

Objectives

- Understand how the spatial turn has influenced different fields in the arts and humanities;
- Discuss critically the main concepts in the spatial humanities field;
- Understand the evolution of the spatial analysis methods and the literature regarding its major turning points;
- Demonstrate the ability to work with theories, methods and sources related to the concepts of "space" and "place";
- Demonstrate the ability to critically analyse uses of space and place in arts and humanities research;
- Evaluate critically the available tools and methods for spatial analysis;
- Apply in practice the theories and methods related to spatial analysis in the arts and humanities.

General characterization

Code

02111040

Credits

10.0

Responsible teacher

Daniel Ribeiro Alves

Hours

Weekly - 3

Total - 280

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

N/A

Bibliography

Alves, D., and Queiroz, A. I. (2015). Exploring Literary Landscapes: From Texts to Spatiotemporal Analysis through Collaborative Work and GIS. International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing, 9(1), 57–73;
Bodenhamer, D. J., Corrigan, J., and Harris, T. M. (Eds.). (2010). The spatial humanities: GIS and the future of humanities scholarship. Indiana University Press;
Gregory, I. N., and Ell, P. (2007). Historical GIS: Technologies, methodologies, and scholarship. Cambridge University Press;
Gregory, I. N., and Geddes, A. (Eds.). (2014). Toward spatial humanities: Historical GIS and spatial history. Indiana University Press;
Knowles, A. K., and Hillier, A. (Eds.). (2008). Placing history: How maps, spatial data, and GIS are changing historical scholarship. ESRI, Inc;
Silveira, L. E. da. (2014). Geographic information systems and historical research: An appraisal. International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing, 8(1), 28–45.

Teaching method

Participation in classes will be evaluated by the student's interventions in the debates of theoretical classes, comments on the projects or methodologies presented, by carrying out specific exercises related to the content of the
class and by their participation in collaborative tasks during practical exercises. The final project work will correspond to the application of the different methodologies explained, using objects of study from the arts and humanities to develop analyzes and visualizations. At the end, the student must produce a GIS or Web-SIG visualization using specific software presented in class. The theme of these analyzes and visualizations can be chosen by the students
with the approval of the professor. 

Evaluation method

Continuous Assessment

Final work on the application of spatial analysis methodologies to objects of study and research questions in the arts and humanities - 70.0%

Participation in classes and exercises - 30.0%

Subject matter

1. Theoretical approach to Spatial Humanities
1.1. Introduction to Spatial Humanities: concept, evolution and state of the art;
1.2. The Spatial Turn in the Arts and Humanities;
1.3. From Historical GIS to Spatial Humanities.


2. Critical review of spatial analysis tools

3. Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
3.1. Definition of a GIS;
3.2. How a GIS works;
3.3. Data Types and Metadata.


4. Using a GIS in the arts and humanities
4.1. Projects and Applications;
4.2. Advantages and Limits.


5. Developing a Spatial Humanities project
5.1. Working with textual sources and cartographic sources;
5.2. Structuring the spatial data;
5.3. Create a project and work with the software;
5.4. Explore, analyze and visualize.