NEH Community Deep Mapping Institute- Fostering the Next-Generation of Historical Geography and GIS Scholars Paper

Don Lafreniere, Michigan Technological University
Sarah Fayen Scarlett, Michigan Technological University
Dan Trepal, Michigan Technological University
Krysta Ryzewski, Wayne State University
James Juip, Michigan Tech University
Mark Rhodes, Michigan Technological University
Robert Cowling, Michigan Technological University
Ryan Williams, Michigan Tech University

In this paper we provide an overview of the ongoing 2025 NEH Community Deep Mapping Institute. The NEH Community Deep Mapping institute is a hybrid 12-month virtual and in-person institute running from January 2025 through December 2025. The Institute has been focusing on expanding the scope and practice of deep mapping by integrating public-facing and transdisciplinary scholarship into historical geography and the spatial humanities. The Institute’s aim is to move from the established theories and concepts of deep mapping towards developing a foundation of practice with a specific emphasis on supporting community histories. The Institute includes 61 fellows from 9 project teams from across the America’s, representing over a 15 academic disciplines and professional heritage/public history fields. The institute has four central objectives. 1) Train new and established scholars and professionals in the use and integration of advanced geospatial tools to advance approaches to doing deep mapping. 2) Establish best practices for creating public-facing deep maps through community-based research, design, and evaluation processes. 3) Determine methods for, and approaches to, applying augmented and mobile technologies that create immersive experiences built upon the robust historical spatial data infrastructures that form the basis of many current deep mapping projects such as the Keweenaw Time Traveler and Hamtramck Spatial Archaeology Project. 4) Demonstrate how transdisciplinary collaborations will contribute to building more inclusive communities of practice across academic fields and between academic-based scholars and non-academic heritage practitioners. This paper will review the institute’s progress to date and the lessons learned by both institutes' hosts and fellows.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 101. NEH Community Deep Mapping Institute 1