We are excited to announce the establishment of our National Endowment for the Humanities Community Deep Mapping Institute as a hybrid 12-month virtual and in-person funded institute running from January 2025 through December 2025. Deep maps integrate information and representations about space, time, architecture, material culture, environment, and community knowledge into a spatially and temporally scaled digital platform that affords open-ended exploration of a particular time and place. They are discursive resources that can be designed to visualize changes in human-environmental relationships over time and to accommodate multiple voices in the creation of community-based narratives.

We will fund fellows or teams of fellows who wish to learn the range of skills necessary to create their own public-facing deep map. We are seeking to create a diverse group of fellows including students, early career to senior scholars, professionals in history and heritage who work with public audiences such as public historians, interpreters, and those who work in museums, parks, and historic sites/houses. We will prioritize the selection of fellows who have some demonstrated engagement with digital humanities research, public-facing scholarship, openness to learning interdisciplinary technical and community-based research, and enthusiasm for investment in Institute aims and futures. Over the course of the year and through the two-week in-person training, fellows will apply archival and digital methods, basic GIS skills, digital spatial storytelling and placemaking, no-code/low-code mobile apps, and outreach and education planning. 

The in-person component will occur July 7th-18th, 2025 in Michigan’s beautiful Keweenaw Peninsula hosted by Michigan Technological University. Applicants selected to be fellows will receive a stipend to support travel to the Keweenaw and subsistence.  Lodging is included for all participants at the historic Laurium Manor Inn, recently voted the third best historic B&B in the United States.  Local transportation and travel to regional heritage sites will also be included for the 2-week in-person component of the institute.

Applications Due November 22, 2024

Apply and find more information on our institute website at deepmappinginstitute.com or reach out to Dr. Don Lafreniere, Project Director with questions djlafren@mtu.edu.

Feature Image: “SR 20 Washington Pass Avalanche Areas” by WSDOT is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.