Reading Novels, Reading Maps October 13, 2009

Dr. Mark Looker, professor of English, and Dr. Michael Kalmes, associate professor of political science, discuss their project using multiple "thematic" maps in layers to uncover connections between apparently unrelated urban phenomena (e.g. poverty and the availability of public transportation, WWI and WWII bombing and the narrative structure of modernist novels, etc.). They will begin by focusing on the city of London in the last two centuries, and use Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway as a test case in developing computer programs that superimpose maps from any city on top of one another. They will discuss and demonstrate their adaptation of the Geographical Information System program ArcMap in carrying out this interdisciplinary work.

Official Website: http://www.cuaa.edu/kreftarts/6001.html