Linnentown was a Black neighborhood near the UGA campus that was destroyed by Urban Renewal in the 1960s. This new storymap created by students in the Community GIS class tells that story, including a virtual tour with former residents.

In previous coursework, Eli Vinson found GIS to primarily an analytical tool. Through the class focus on qualitative GIS, he writes about how he's come to see intersections between his interest in graphic design and the working "geo(graphically)".

In her blog post, @AmberAOrozco talks about open-source tools such as QGIS and Leaflet and how "open access" isn't just about software.

Jared Grant tells his readers to "get lost" (but in a good way!) His blog post reflects on how fieldwork doing canvassing for @AADMovement helps us see familiar spaces in new ways.

Rachael Glenn writes about the process of canvassing for @AADMovement's United Against Discrimination campaign and how ESRI's Field Maps played a role in mapping out participating businesses.

Coverage of the recent report by @jerry_shannon and others in the local paper.

Reflecting on related past work he did in Oregon, Trevor Jones discusses the importance of trust building to the process of public engagement in mapping projects, using Arnstein's ladder to think through how that process could have been improved.

Phillip Jones argues that rather than being objective, maps always provide a narrative perspective, usually of the "loudest and most powerful." Storymaps like the one we created for Linnentown can provide new perspectives on our shared spaces & histories.

Molly Dunn draws on the work of Sarah Elwood and @meghankellymaps to describe how she and classmates used "caution and consideration" in designing a storymap whose goal is to "persuade or provoke."

In his post, @elijahhum discusses how our work on a Linnentown storymap shows how digital mapping can support broader activism to highlight and reckon with the destruction of the generational wealth of Black communities through programs like urban renewal.

Claudia White describes her process about creating maps showing the commutes of Black domestic workers in 1958 Athens using ArcGIS Online.

Students in this semester's Community GIS class have been writing blog posts about our work, including digitization of a historical city directory and the creation of a storymap about Linnentown. A few highlights!.

It's a mapathon! Join us next Wednesday, 2/2, from 6-8 ET as we work on data cleaning for the 1958 Athens directory. We're creating an open data set that gives an in-depth view of the labor market, segregation, and housing ownership at that time. Signup:

New blog post! Emilie Castillo writes about work we've been doing this year with @BikeAthens to create a map of bike routes through the city.

New blog post! Mary Farrell was an undergradaute research assistant for the CML this semester and mapped out social service coverage in our area using R, Mapbox, and Tableau.

New blog post! We've started a reading group over the summer, and last week we looked at @wilsonism's new article in @ProgHumGeog on a minor GIScience. We largely liked it but wished it gave more space to participatory methods. w/@tayhafley

Partnering with Broderick Flanigan, the @cmaplab has updated our map of Black-owned businesses in Athens. Here's the link:

For more on Linnentown, visit their website:

Katrina wrote about how this class changed her own perspective on research, becoming aware of "the continued presence of our past ghosts and grievances" as well as growing into a "more active, empathetic, and responsible citizen."

Two graduate students in the course also wrote reflections. Aidan wrote about the process of recording and destabilizing historical records: "By bringing together unconnected historical datasets, the stories of the past can be illuminated in new ways."