CGA Virtual Forum 2021: Geographic Data Science and Public Policy

10:30am – 12:30pm EDT, Wednesday, June 30^th, 2021

In the wake of much public data science and public data visualization (as related to COVID-19, election data, data about police violence, evictions, etc.), how is geographic knowledge translated to various publics? What are the important GIScience principles that get muddied in the rush toward storytelling with data, including long-standing concerns around choropleth thematic maps, polygonal transformations, data normalization, scales, projections and more?

In this forum, we invite geographers and data-based journalists in a variety of organizations to offer thoughts on the roles and means of translation. The speakers will address the primary question that motivates this event: how is geographic knowledge translated to various publics? They will share their thoughts about the role of data transformations, projections and standards, about storytelling and visualizations, about ethics and privacy, and about how these efforts move us towards policy recommendations.

The event is structured as a series of four 15-minute presentations by Jeremy White (NYTimes), Carolyn Fish (U of Oregon), Ensheng Dong (Johns Hopkins), and Yonette Thomas (UrbanHealth360), followed by four 5-minute lightning talks by Jared Shoultz (Esri), Devika Kakkar (Harvard), Jeff Blossom (Harvard) and Alan Leidner (NYC GISMO). These will culminate in a panel discussion, where participants will also be invited to ask questions. Bookending this event will be opening remarks by Subu Subramanian (Harvard) and closing remarks by Xiao-li Meng (Harvard).

This event is free and open to the public. It is hosted by the Center for Geographic Analysis, a member of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, and co-sponsored by the NSF IUCRC Spatiotemporal Innovation Center. For more information about CGA conferences, please visit https://gis.harvard.edu/conferences. See attached for the full program.

Please register in advance: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xZUx1K9STuOFMAMNUNT2QA.

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Wendy Guan, Ph.D.                                1737 Cambridge Street, K022

Executive Director                                   Cambridge, MA 02138

Center for Geographic Analysis              617-496-6102 (office)

Harvard University                                   617-496-5149 (fax)

http://gis.harvard.edu                              [log in to unmask]