Fall 2026 Course Schedule
This schedule is organized by week. Reading and assignment details may continue to be posted on the course site as we progress through the semester. All material is subject to change at the instructor’s discretion based on our progress in the course. If there are changes which impact due dates or the timeline of work, they will be clearly stated here and in class.
Important Dates for Fall 2026 from NYUAD Registrar
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Monday, 31 August | First Day of Classes |
| Friday, 11 September | Add/Drop Deadline (14-week courses) |
| Saturday, 17 October; 18-22 October | Reading Day & Finals for 7 week courses (no classes) |
| Friday-Sunday 23-25 October | Fall Break (no classes) |
| Monday, 26 October | Classes Resume (14-week courses) |
| Friday, 20 November | Withdrawal Deadline (14-week courses) |
| Wednesday-Friday, 2-3 December | National Day Holiday (no classes) |
| Monday, 14 December | Legislative Day - Thursday classes |
| Monday, 14 December | Last Day of Classes |
| Wednesday, 16 December | All work due |
In the schedule below, the first column date indicates the meeting date of the class. We always meet 1120am-1230pm in the classroom. The second column preparation indicates what you should have completed in preparation for the course. The third column activity gives some indication of what we will be covering in class in addition to general discussion.
Part 1:
Week 1 (1, 3 September)
Topic: Introduction to the Course. In this first week, we will take a look at the larger picture of this course, and moving beyond the contemporary idea of way-finding, we will explore the “geospatial,” the way it can be studied and some of the critical questions we can ask of geospatial data using uncommon sources, those from the humanities.
| Date | Preparation | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Sept | none | -Introduction to course, expectations, syllabus -Introducing ourselves -course site |
| 3 Sept | -Digital Mapping (Wilson, in drive) -“How Crowdsourcing and Smartphones are Redefining Spatial Data” -“You’re Leaking your location” -Mercator vs True Size -The True Size of… -“Do Maps Lie?” |
-Discussion of readings & general course issues -Introduction to static sites |
Extra Credit: 17 September NYU New York Data Services classes “Introduction to arcGIS Online”. Up to 2 points on one assignment. Register here. Guidelines here. NB: You must request an arcGIS online account in advance of this workshop! Instructions on how to do so are included in the registration page.
Week 2 (8, 10 September)
Topic: Exploring Spatial Data and Spatial Data Practices. In this week, we will explore what forms spatial data take, where you can go and find data about places and the kind of work “GIS” (geographic information systems) experts do. We will explore models (open and proprietary) for such data and will begin to visualize some datasets, particularly those coming from free, open spatial data that we can download. We will also work on setting up an individual site so that we can host content (including live interactive maps) for the course.
| Date | Preparation | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 8 Sept | -Watch “The Geospatial Revolution, episode 5” (You can watch the other 4–they are dated) -“Map Power and Map Methodologies for Social Justice” (Krupar) -Toward Critical Data Studies (Kitchin & Lauriault) |
-Highlights of Episode 1-4 of the PSU series -Discussion of Reading -Gentle Introduction to Static Sites |
| 10 Sept | -What is a static site? -Static Sites -Download Github Desktop -make a Github account and share your username here -What is Markdown? |
-Summarizing Wikle and Williamson, “Static Web Methodology as a Sustainable Approach to Digital Humanities Projects” -Setting Up a Site for Coursework -A “cheatsheet” for Markdown |
First Assignment Due: Monday, 28 September, 11:59pm Building a Map of Chosen Features for the Country of Your Choice. Full Instructions here.
Extra Credit: 25 September NYU New York Data Services classes “Introduction to R”. Up to 2 points on one assignment. Register here. Guidelines here.
Week 3 (15, 17 September)
Topic: From Official Cartography to “Neogeography” and Critical Data Approaches. In this week, we will take a look at state-centered cartographic practices of the past, how open source map data came into being, how well it represents the globe, and how such data creation practices have been transformed. Moreover, we will look at how, within web mapping frameworks we can create our own spatial data to tell visual stories about any topic of interest. We introduce the notion of critical data studies this week.
| Date | Preparation | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Sept | -Early GIS in Canada -“Evolution of GIS” -The Billion Dollar Code - trailer -About The Billion Dollar Code -GeoNames -How OpenStreetMap Got Started -Things that Happened in 2004 (Buzzfeed) |
-Today’s slides -GeoNames Webservice -Quick Map Visualization using kepler.gl and UMap |
| 17 Sept | -How reliable is the data in OSM? -Make an account at posit.cloud -Skim-watch RStudio for Beginners with PositCloud and chatGPT -“Working in a Programming Language” in Humanities Data Essentials in R |
-Making sure our GitHub pages are working -Querying OSM in overpass turbo -Notebook: “The Anatomy of a Web Map” -Notebook: “Mapping Specific Features in OSM data of your choice” (posit.cloud) -A Peek at QGIS |
Week 4 (22, 24 September)
Topic: The “Spatial Humanities”. This week we will look at a variety of different projects from the humanities and humanities-adjacent fields that use spatial data to visualize phenomena, to tell stories and make arguments. Projects will come from a variety of disciplines.
| Date | Preparation | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 22 Sept | none | Instructor away at a conference, no class |
| 24 Sept | -What is Humanities Mapping? (Pascoe) -list of projects for our presentations -Another course’s list of projects |
-explore how geospatial technologies can support humanities argument and storytelling -discuss what spatial research does well -in class student mini-presentations (in pairs) |
| 25 Sept | 9-11am anything from the term so far | a drop-in clinic to catch up on anything covered so far, sites, concepts |
Announcement, Not Extra Credit: starting 27 September The NYU Phone Breakup Challenge begins. Learn more about it here.
Extra Credit: 7 October NYU New York Data Services classes “Breaking Up with Google Docs,” an introduction to privacy-centered Joplin and Obsidian. Register here. Guidelines here.
Week 5 (29 September, 1 October)
Topic: Telling Spatial Narratives and “Volunteered Geographic Data” (VGI). In this week we continue our exploration of the world of humanities and humanities-adjacent research in the spatial humanities with more student presentations and discussions of the “nuts and bolts” of these projects. We turn to a “road trip” novel created in 2018 by an NYUNY graduate and an AI-powered car.
| Date | Preparation | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 29 Sept | -spatial humanities projects reviews |
-in class student mini-presentations (in pairs) |
| 1 Oct | -What is VGI? -1, the Road -Who is Ross Goodwin? -make an account at Recogito |
-close reading of 1, the Road |
In-class Written Exam: 15 October Tips here.
Week 6 (6, 8 October)
Topic: Spatializing Texts: Human and Machine.
This week we will continue thinking about the AI-created novel by Goodwin and take a look at manual annotation. We discuss the process of manual and automated annotation and the pitfalls of both. .
| Date | Preparation | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 6 Oct | -What is Annotation? -Ways of Annotating -Interannotator Disagreement -make an account at Recogito |
-Introduction to Recogito -Slides: “What is Annotation?” (drive) -Notebook: “Human versus Machine “ |
| 8 Oct | -Why Should We Digitize Historical Newspapers -How Do We Digitize Historical Newspapers -The Sultanate of Zanzibar -Zanzibar (Wikipedia) -Zanzibar Gazette |
-Visit to Archives and Special Collections, NYUAD Library (meet in front of the door at the back of the library) |
Second Assignment Due: 7 November, 11:59pm Comparing Human and Machine Mapping of an AI written Novel. Full Instructions here.
Week 7 (13, 15 October)
Topic: Midterm Wrap-Up and In-class handwritten assessment
This week will do a wrap up of the first half of the semester and brainstorm possible topics for the in-class handwritten assessment. I will bring paper and an exam sheet. You will hand write the exam in your choice of pen or pencil.
| Date | Preparation | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Oct | -general review of course materials for written midterm -What is “International Open Access Week”? -Who Pays for Open Source? (podcast) |
-brainstorming -Discussion of what about DHS has been open access and why -Slides: Geospatial and Open Access/Open Source (in Drive) |
| 15 Oct | -general review of course materials | in class written exam |
FALL BREAK – keep calm and have a break! If you want something to watch on Netflix, try The Billion Dollar Code, the German series we spoke about before.
Part 2
Week 8 (27, 29 October)
Topic: The Past of Paper Maps: Comparing Spatial Perspectives of Historical Cartography
Long before maps were made digital they were paper-based objects. We will explore how, once digitized, analog maps gain currency in the digital world, how we can study them for the perspectives of their makers as well as derive data from them for use in computational systems. Highlighted this week will be Soviet cartography.
| Date | Preparation | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 27 Oct | -Introducing the second half of the semester -How Much has Mapping Changed from early GIS to today What is QGIS? -What is Georeferencing? |
-Introducing Assignment 2 |
| 29 Oct | -Georeferencing |
Week 9 (3, 5 November)
Topic: The Past of Maps, the Future of Maps
This week we will work with georeferencing formerly analog, now digitized, maps. What can such an approach allow us? How can we analyzing them visually? Is analysis possible computationally?
| Date | Preparation | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Nov | -“Russian and Soviet Cartography: A Concise History” -“The Soviet Military Program that Secretly Mapped the Entire World” -McMaster University’s Cold War Collection |
-Hands-on: Georeferencing a Soviet map of a UAE city -Soviet Military Map Finder -Why Georeferencing Matters in GIS -How to Georeference in QGIS? -How to Georeference a Map or Image in QGIS? |
| 5 Nov | -Reasons to Georeference & Vectorize |
-Hands-on: Georeferencing & Vectorizing, Reusing those files in R -introducing the final oral exam |
Week 10 (10, 12 November)
Topic: Getting Help to Create Structured Data from Complex Sources: LLMs
This week we will return to the idea of modeling data, that is, giving data shape, based on information found in unstructured sources. We will think about ways that complex analog sources, once digitized, can be modeled as spatial data sets. This process will allow us to allow them to visualized and analyzed.
| Date | Preparation | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Nov | -What is Data Modeling in the Humanities? -Modeling Complex Sources (remember the phone book?) |
|
| 5 Nov | -Complex Sources -mapping the pre-oil Gulf Lorimer’s Gazetteer |
-Data Modeling and LLM prompting |
Oral Exams during the week of 24 November. Guidelines for oral exam. Sign ups available here.
Week 11 (17, 19 November)
Instructor Away at a conference. The first course on Tuesday will be an online interactive demo on LLM prompting for data extraction. Thursday’s course will be made up the following week for practice for oral exams. A zoom link will be shared in our Google space prior to the meeting.
| Date | Preparation | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Nov (online) | -What is Data Modeling in the Humanities? -Modeling Complex Sources (remember the phone book?) |
|
| 19 Nov | -Complex Sources (mapping the pre-oil Gulf Lorimer’s Gazetteer -Data Modeling and LLM prompting |
Oral exams. Oral exams will be held outside of regular class hours at the end of the week of 23 November and the beginning of the next.
Third Assignment Due: 30 November, 11:59pm Critical Data Manipulation with an LLM. Full Instructions here.
Week 12 (24, 26 November)
Topic: Changing Frontiers: Human versus Machine Descriptions of the World
Today we return to the concept of vectorization seen previously in the semester. Vectorization is a way that we can create a spatial polygon and connect it with a semantics. We will see both
| Date | Preparation | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 24 Nov | -What is humanitarian GIS? -Crowdsourced knowledge for good |
-hands on with HOTOSM |
| 26 Nov | -How is AI changing geospatial technologies -What is GeoAI -Podcast on Machine Descriptions of the World |
Discussion |
Week 13 (1 December)
Topic: GeoAI In Humanistic and Social Domains.
This week we will look at some of the newest ways that spatial data is being leveraged for problem solving in domains such as urban planning, smart cities and geospatial intelligence, in addition to some of the critiques of such methods.
| Date | Preparation | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Dec | -What is GeoAI -“What is Segmentation?” -“What is AI Vectorizer” -“More about AI Segmentation of Maps” |
-hands on with vectorizing aerial images -Critical hands-on with some AI GIS tools |
| 3 Dec | none | National Day Holiday! |
Fourth (optional) Assignment Due: 13 December. Between Distant Coding and Prompt Cartography : Developing a Complex Interactive Mapping Project using an LLM. Prompt here. Rubric in the rubric tab.
Week 14 (8, 10 December)
Topic: “Prompt Cartography”
Winding down the semester we will look at one of the ways that LLMs are impacting the creation of maps, but also reemphasizing the importance on traditional skills of design and high quality data creation.
| 8 Dec | -What is Prompt Cartography? |
-Some more exploration (Rumsey text search in maps ) -Redoing assignment 1 and 2 with prompts |
| 10 Dec | -What is Prompt Cartography? 2 |
-Discussion |
Week 15 (14 December)
Topic: Legislative Day. Semester wrap up.
| 14 Dec | none | Semester Wrap up |