The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Langauges and the Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics are hosting a three-day workshop MAPS AND BEYOND: GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS) FOR LINGUISTS (22 October, 5 November, 19 November).

MAPS AND BEYOND: Geographic information SYSTEMS (GIS) FOR LINGUISTS

Continuing Professional Development Course

Instructor:

Nick Harff, MSc, CGeog, FRGS

GIS Consultant

Course organizers:

Dr Chiara Cappellaro & Dr Alexander Krasovitsky

The course is geared towards linguists at any stage of their career whose research includes spatial data and who would like to learn how to handle, analyze, manipulate, visualize and share these data using the power of geographic information systems (GIS). GIS are essential in a variety of research areas, however in linguistics their potential has not been used to the fullest. A few recent and notable examples of successful application of GIS to linguistic data include: Jeszenszky, Péter; Weibel, Robert (2016): Modelling transitions between syntactic variants in the dialect continuum and Stoeckle, Philipp (2016): Horizontal and vertical variation in Swiss German morphosyntax.

Upon the completion of the course participants will be able:

• to create interactive maps using their own data and share them using GIS platforms;
• to use GIS to capture similarities and differences across data with respect to geographic variables using basic spatial and statistical analysis;
• to visualize and analyze spatially enabled data using tools and methodology provided by free and commercial GIS software (Google Maps, ArcGIS).

No previous experience with GIS is required. The workshop consists of the following three sessions:

Session 1 (Saturday, 22 October 15.00-17.30)

Introduction to GIS

Historical overview. Overview of the technology. Definitions. Instructions for participants.

GIS software overview.

Session 2 (Saturday, 5 November 15.00-17.30)

Working with GIS data (with Introduction to basics of spatial data analysis)

Data classification, querying and presentation.

Session 3 (Saturday, 19 November 15.00-17.30)

Creating a GIS project

Georeferencing, creating and adding data, data sources.

Venue: 47 Wellington Square (Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages)