Objectives
The overall objective of the intensive is to introduce participants to the fundamental concepts of and tools for creating, manipulating, mapping and analyzing geospatial data. These topics will be introduced in the context of a project of interest to social scientists and digital humanists - The Louisiana Slave Conspiracies - which uses scanned maps, census and land use data, and modern tools to gain insights on historical events.
The first three days of this intensive will cover the basic workflows of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which are software programs and applications that let you create, display, and analyze geospatial information. The last two days will introduce the R programming environment as a tool for working with geospatial data.
Day 1. Geospatial data and GIS Fundamentals
Day one of this series will introduce participants to geospatial data concepts, formats and tools. We will provide an overview of the different types of geospatial data and how to find freely available open source data online. We will load and explore sample data set in QGIS, a widely used free and open source GIS software application. This process will give participants exposure to fundamental GIS workflows, including methods for querying and visualizing geospatial data.
Bring a laptop with QGIS installed. No previous knowledge or experience is expected.
