GEOG 295 Special Topics in Geography: Latinx and Latin American Cartographies
How do Latinx and Latin American communities create maps that challenge dominant narratives? What happens when mapping draws from Indigenous knowledge, embodied experience, and collective storytelling rather than quantitative data alone? How can maps become agents for environmental justice, human rights, and political action?
This 200-level geography course introduces students to alternative cartographic practices emerging from Latin America, including countermapping, social cartography, senti-pensar (feel-think), and cuerpo-territorio (body–territory). Students will explore how these approaches respond to issues such as migration, displacement, extractivism, and climate change, while foregrounding ethics, participation, and social impact.
The course combines lectures with mapping hands-on workshops. It is ideal for students interested in qualitative research, critical GIS, or creative approaches to spatial storytelling. Students will learn how mapping practices from the Global South mobilize narrative, emotion, and collective knowledge to challenge colonial frameworks of data and space.
No prior cartography experience is required. The course may be especially relevant for students in Geography, Latin American Studies, Environmental Studies, Data Visualization, and Human-Centered Design who want to rethink how maps are made—and for whom they are created.