From Collective Cartographies to Digital Storytelling

In this two-part project from my course "StoryMapping & Thick Mapping in the Urban Humanities", students explored how space is layered with memory, culture, and power. Beginning with a collaborative physical thick map of our campus—built from ethnographic observations, found materials, and collective reflection—students learned to see mapping as a narrative and interpretive act. They then translated their work into individual digital StoryMaps using ArcGIS, each reimagining our shared spaces through unique lenses such as migration, urban transformation, and community voice. Together, these projects explore how mapping can function as both a research method and storytelling practice, inviting students to reframe familiar environments through the layered perspectives of history, identity, and belonging.