Material Maps in the Digital Age, a Summer Seminar for College and University Faculty at the Newberry Library

FAIN: FS-261658-18

Newberry Library (Chicago, IL 60610-3305)
James R. Akerman (Project Director: February 2018 to March 2021)
Peter Nekola (Co Project Director: August 2018 to March 2021)

A four-week seminar for 16 college and university faculty on the impact of the digital revolution on map literacy and humanities research and teaching with material maps.

The Newberry Library's Smith Center for the History of Cartography seeks NEH support for a four-week summer seminar for 16 college and university faculty in 2019 that will consider how humanities research with material maps, and map literacy itself, is being transformed by the challenges and opportunities posed by the digital revolution. In many respects, reading historic maps and using them in research and teaching is easier and more productive in the digital age. However, the visual qualities of map documents that can be transmitted electronically do not displace the need to understand them and nor should they supplant the study of maps as material objects. These assertions, and their implications for higher education and humanities scholarship, lie at the heart of Material Maps in the Digital Age, a four-week seminar led by Dr. James Akerman and Dr. Peter Nekola, featuring discussion and research immersed in the Newberry’s extensive and renowned collection of historic maps.