As a new fellow, I’m still getting a sense of what this all means, so please excuse the LiveJournal nature of the first few posts.
Mapping, in my discipline, means something different than it does in most contexts. Essentially, mapping is an acknowledgment of “signposts”— trends, notable events, themes— across a story. At least this is my understanding of mapping when I talk to first-year writing students. Usually, we integrate mapping into conversations about writing when we’re looking at the story that’s been told. If I can guide students through a “mapping” of a paper, there’s a possibility of reverse engineering genres and writing conventions and point the student toward success when writing outside my specific writing assignments.
In reviewing examples of past projects that have come through CHI, it’s certainly possible to map through lines through histories and stories to observe truths as they reveal themselves. Elise Dixon’s project come to mind. I wonder what these abstract signposts that map a story would look like geo-spatially. What stories would arise about communities if I can visualize what I once considered to be abstract?
My research, generally, is focussed on community formation and communities remain. Particularly, I’m interested in the resilience of these communities in the face of material and epistemic marginalization. My recent research projects look at how marginalized communities upend the rhetoric of resilience and public health. For example, I think of my own home community and the networks of care that were established outside of traditional hospitals, clinics, insurance networks. I’m interested in how these networks came to be and how observing these networks can lead to positive outcomes for others.
How do I begin to map something that exists geo-spatially but is intergenerational and without specific locations? I have a lot to look into and to reckon with (my own project management skills, specifically), but I think I’m in the right place to do it.
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