You’re an undergraduate history major with large amounts of data about crime statistics in various locations across the United States over time. To a criminology student, this might be a gold mine, full of relative research material for their next paper. For you, it’s just numbers. But Dr. Andrew McGregor says GIS (Geographic Information Systems) can change that.

Photo by Allison Hall

On Wednesday, November 14, Dr. McGregor, Dr. Drew Morton, and Dr. Doug Julien hosted a four-hour open house in the Red River Innovation Lab for Humanities to celebrate GIS day. He started with an overview of definitions and ended with a hands on session, showing students and professors ways to use the mapping software. The goal was to show how this technology is useful in all fields of study.

GIS is a type of mapping systems that uses GPS signaling to help you plot specific coordination. Sounds ancient. But actually, it’s all digital now and it can get complicated. However, Dr. McGregor kept it simple, explaining how GIS can help people of all disciplines map data over both time and space. Mapping is no longer thought of as only useful to Geography professionals. Humanities academics have potential here. Dr. Morton, head of the Red River Innovation Lab, was also present and showed a very interesting piece from the online Journal [In]Transition. It was a video made to show the current geography of locations used in older Western films. With this type of use, GIS can reveal interesting things about the developing and changing technique and design of filmmakers. It’s a way for easy comparison.

You, as a history major, can use this technology to take that data about crime trends, map them, and compare them to other mapped data regarding things such as economy, redlining, slavery and more to discover that American crime trends are in fact a result of historical events across the nation. Admittedly, this example is self-explanatory, but it’s an easy way to develop a clear picture about the functions of these systems. It’s also a topic repeatedly addresses during the event.

Photo by Allison Hall

An interesting point brought up is the fact that maps only show data. They don’t necessarily make any arguments. That’s up to the viewer. The purpose of GIS mapping is for the user to devise and develop a question, argument or idea and present it in a way that is practical and stimulating in a visual way. The map is for you to make a point with in a way that’s different from a research paper or a graph.

This is a way for different disciplines to network among one another. This is not a one person job nor does it create a singular study. You need researchers to gather data, interpreters for that data, coders, mappers and so on. This gives fields such as history a reason to work together both within and outside of their field.

Photo by Allison Hall

Dr. Doug Julien, not having the statistics and code driven background needed for certain aspects of GIS mapping from scratch, introduced a user-friendly website, EJScreen. This website presents already gathered data in map form for people to reference. It presents an opportunity to clarify and verify previous thoughts as well as a way to formulate new questions based on such data. In other words, it is a lead in to formulate questions that you might build your own map to answer. He uses this to track both historical and modern-day racism and the evidence found in current living conditions. He is able to show how things such as redlining has put minority citizens in an almost permanent area in locations within Texarkana.

Aside from Dr. Julien’s introduction into EJScreen, Dr. MgGregor offered other online mapping tools where you can apply your own data to create your own very specific maps, such as ESRI Story Maps, Google Earth Pro., Google My Maps, and Carto. He took us through each of these sites, some offering different features than others, but all seeming very easy to navigate in an organized way. They all offer a visual option for large amounts of data that might not make sense mentally in the same way.

To find out more about Geographic Information Systems, you can contact Dr. McGregor at amcgregor@tamut.edu.