Conference Review
Mapping History, People andIdeas: Geospatial Modelling in the Arts, Humanities and Social Services
2 December 2009
Summary Abstract
Conference Review
The two co-organisers (Boyle and Petrie) were very pleased to be given the opportunity to organise the Mapping History, People and Ideas: Geospatial Modelling in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences event held on December 2nd. Dr. Boyle was eventually unable to attend on the day due to another commitment, but in the view of the co-organiser who chaired the day (Petrie), it was most successful. The six papers that were presented were all excellent and each covered a different aspect of the use of mapping and geospatial modelling, which was what was originally intended. There were 20+ attendees and virtually all stayed throughout the day and engaged in discussion with all of the presenters. The attendees included Mr Issam Kourbaj, the artist who designed the map of Cambridge used for the front of the poster, and a range students from various departments in the University, and several interested parties from other institutions, including Cambridgeshire County Council.
The morning session began with a paper by Craig Alexander, who is a PhD student in the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge. His paper on “The Spatial Location of Valcamonica Rock-Art” reviewed a range of theoretical and practical approaches to analysing the landscape context of rock art sites in northern Italy. This was followed by Dr Corrine Roughley (Archaeology, University of Cambridge), who presented three case studies on “Interpreting prehistoric landscape: journeys in time and space”, including some outstanding new research on the prehistoric landscapes of Ireland using LIDAR imagery. Following the coffee break, Prof. Leigh Shaw-Taylor from the Department of History (University of Cambridge) provided a vivid demonstration of the possibilities for re-evaluating our perceptions of long term socio-economic developments by reinterpreting large historical census data sets with his presentation “GIS and the Occupational Structure of Britain 1379-1911”. After this, Prof. Tony Wilkinson from the University of Durham introduced a large- and multi-scalar agent based modelling project looking at ancient Mesopotamia in his paper “From Household to Region: Incorporating Agency into the Interpretation of Regional Settlement”. After the lunch interval, Prof. Bob Haining (Geography, University of Cambridge) outlined his research on “Geospatial modelling of UK crime data” which highlighted the complex dynamics of crime statistics, crime reporting and police and public perception of these factors. The last paper of the day was presented by Prof. Kenneth L. Kvamme (University of Arkansas), who is one of the innovators of geospatial modelling in the social sciences and also a visiting scholar to the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge. His paper “Modelling with GIS at Scales Large and Small: Examples from American Archaeology and Geophysics” presented as broad sweep overview of 30 years of work in the field, and provided insights into ways of collecting and analysing spatial data in order to come up with novel insights into the archaeological record.
