Instructor:
How did you find your way to your first college class ever? Maybe you looked at a campus map; maybe a disembodied voice from Google Maps directed you. Either way, what you saw on the map was a representation of the world around you. For centuries, maps have been powerful statements not of how the world is, but how it should be, of who counts, and who does not. This course explores how maps have shaped the world we live in today, from the nation states we live in to the languages we speak, and the jobs we hold. Looking at a different map, or series of maps each week, we will interrogate ways that maps have made meaning by representing the world, and how different scholars have used them to make arguments. By the end of this course you will have used maps to ask questions about money, power, religion, freedom, and fairness. You will practice your analytical and critical skills, asking not only how space is represented in the maps we look at, but why.