Category Archives: Uncategorized

How the L. M. Montgomery Institute spurs public engagement through digital mapping

Posted on by

This article is part of a two-part series by ACLC student Alex MacIsaac on the kinds of skills and opportunities ACLC emphasizes through its courses, extracurricular activities, work experiences, work-integrated practicums, and experiential projects. The series showcases work experiences available to Faculty of Arts, including ACLC, students. This two-part series focuses on digital mapping opportunities in the context of ACLC faculty research projects. 

Dr. Kate Scarth is an Assistant Professor in Applied Communication, Leadership, and Culture (ACLC) at the University of Prince Edward Island. Dr. Scarth is also the Chair of L.M. Montgomery Studies where she works closely with the L.M. Montgomery Institute (LMMI). The LMMI is dedicated to researching the life and works of one of Canada’s most cherished authors. Here, Dr. Scarth leads a team of students in creating research projects related to L.M. Montgomery.

These Montgomery projects enhance skills and experiences at the core of the ACLC program. Dr. Scarth’s student assistants work on digital humanities projects, learning to communicate and engage people with history and literature through digital media. These students gain confidence in working with technology and create real products of interest both locally and internationally. Heidi Haering and Michaela Wipond are two students working on mapping Montgomery digitally.

Heidi Haering is a third-year student at UPEI, majoring in Anthropology and minoring in Philosophy and Biology. Heidi is working on a range of mapping projects as part of a proposed L.M. Montgomery Institute Hub, which focuses on engaging the public around Montgomery and supporting Montgomery stakeholders. Heidi works with the mapping program, ArcGIS, to create two different LMMI projects, an international engagement project and a walking tour of Halifax.

ArcGIS is a Geographic Information System (GIS for short) program. It is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present spatial or geographic data. Heidi uses ArcGIS to visualize, plot, and reference noteworthy Montgomery locations.

For the international engagement project, the LMMI will be collecting information from L.M. Montgomery fans from all over the world. This information includes where fans are from and why they enjoy L.M. Montgomery. After Heidi acquires the information, she will use ArcGIS to plot the data onto a digital map. Map users will be able to view and interact with points of interest displaying where Montgomery fans are located internationally. Heidi explains, “We’re mainly trying to use (digital maps) as an engagement platform.” The goal of the project is to help foster a global community of Montgomery fans and to showcase the possibilities of crowd-sourced maps.

Heidi is also assisting on a Halifax walking tour project. The project (also being digitally mapped with ArcGIS) will take people on a tour of all sites related to Montgomery and her time in Halifax. It will also include Anne of Green Gables’ time in the fictional town of “Kingsport”—based on Halifax—in Montgomery’s novel, Anne of the Island. The tour will allow fans to walk in Montgomery’s and Anne’s footsteps, and give fans a sense of what the author and character experienced while living in Halifax/Kingsport. This project is a model for similar projects the LMMI will undertake on Montgomery’s PEI locations.

These projects aim to engage Montgomery’s readers and fans. Of course, a passion for Montgomery’s writing is also a great asset in working on Montgomery projects at UPEI. Michaela Wipond is a fourth-year student at UPEI, majoring in English and minoring in History and Theatre studies. When she was younger, Michaela received Anne of Green Gables for her birthday, which began her love for L.M. Montgomery’s works. Michaela moved to Charlottetown specifically so she could study Montgomery.

Pictured: Student Michaela Wipond

One of Michaela’s main tasks is to perform research for Dr. Scarth’s Halifax Literary Landmarks project. This digital literary tour includes descriptions of Halifax in L.M. Montgomery’s books as well as other literature about the city from before 1918. At the core of this tour is a map, created with the digital exhibition program, Omeka, which will lead users through these literary points of interest. Michaela explains, “We wanted (the project) to be accessible to people who were either in Halifax or not in Halifax. Right now, what I’m primarily working on is the website so that someone anywhere can go on the website and say, ‘I want to learn about representations of Point Pleasant Park,’ and they could click on a link and read the different descriptions and sights and quotes (about the location).”

There will be a guided tour, in audio and text forms, that will accompany the map to explain the significance of the locations. These multiple types of experience allow for anyone, whether in Halifax or anywhere else in the world, to experience the tour in a form that is accessible to them.

The Halifax Literary Landmarks research team has compiled an extensive list of texts about Halifax literature. Michaela goes through those texts in order to find the most accurate, relevant, and interesting sources for the project. She also writes for the Halifax Literary Landmarks project, and has contributed to the LMMI’s website and social media.

These projects from the LMMI use digital media in order to communicate information in innovative ways. Going forward, the LMMI hopes to continue engaging individuals locally and internationally through digital media.

These are just a few examples of the ways Arts students can develop skills and have interesting work experiences on campus. Be sure to watch UPEI’s Human Resources’ ads for Student Positions! Link: http://www.upei.ca/hr/student-positions

Find out more about UPEI’s Applied Communication, Leadership, and Culture program

Find out more about the L.M. Montgomery Institute

The Halifax Literary Landmarks project:

The website is coming soon.

This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

It is also supported by the Nova Scotia Museum.

Supported by the Office of the President at UPEI through funding for the Chair of Montgomery Studies in support of the proposed L. M. Montgomery Institute Public Engagement and Research Hub.

Meet the UPEI GeoREACH Lab

Posted on by

by Alex MacIsaac, Applied Communications, Leadership & Culture, UPEI

This article is first in a two-part series by ACLC student Alex MacIsaac on the kinds of skills and opportunities ACLC emphasizes through its courses, extracurricular activities, work experiences, work-integrated practicums, and experiential projects. The series showcases work experiences available to Faculty of Arts, including ACLC, students. This series focuses on digital mapping opportunities in the context of ACLC faculty research projects.

The GeoREACH Lab team, March 2019. Photo by A. MacIsaac

The GeoREACH Lab at UPEI supports Geospatial Research in Atlantic Canadian History and other projects of the Applied Communications, Leadership & Culture program at UPEI. Dr. Josh MacFadyen is the director of the GeoREACH Lab, and working under him, a team of students are researching the environmental history and historical geography of Atlantic Canada. Much of their work focuses on the history of food and agriculture in Canada, including the ways that the modern food system has shaped our relationships with animals and the land. The transition to this kind of system occurred relatively recently on PEI, and this presents an opportunity to map the causes and impacts of the transition using the tools of the geospatial humanities.

A geographic information system (GIS for short) is one of these geospatial tools. A GIS is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present spatial or geographic data. The members of the GeoREACH Lab utilize GIS in order to visualize, compare, and analyze historical data. Much of this research involves mapping the region’s human and non-human inhabitants using GIS.

The lab’s work supports training in the ACLC program, but it is also open to students and researchers in other disciplines. For instance, Julianna Granzoti and Catherine Kennedy are both Environmental Studies students at UPEI. Julianna and Catherine have worked together in the past, and they collaborate in their work with the GeoREACH Lab. The central aspect of their research revolves around geographic changes over time on Prince Edward Island between 1968 and 2010. Some of the lab’s current projects focus on the impact that policies like the 1969 Comprehensive Development Plan had on communities and the land. Julianna and Catherine are able to observe and analyze many aspects of the local environment over different time periods through using GIS programs. Students view different “layers” of maps in order to compare and contrast environmental changes over time.

“In environmental studies it’s really interdisciplinary, so we need to look at the science side and the social side, and I think GIS helps fill a gap with that because we can visually try to analyze what we’re seeing, say look at nutrients in soil for example, but we can also find the history of the area. I think (the technology) could be applied to many different disciplines.”

–Catherine Kennedy

Andrew Ing, a Geomatics Supervisor who works with the province of PEI in the Forest, Fish, and Wildlife division, visited the lab to show student researchers the many layers of GIS maps the province is creating, and why they are particularly important. At the provincial level, GIS data layers are being created and analyzed often. A variety of GIS data related to property, infrastructure, and natural resources are available in some cases for free, and others for a fee from the Government of Prince Edward Island. Government agencies and other researchers have been developing GIS-ready data since the 1960s. This presents a new opportunity to researchers like Dr. MacFadyen who are interested in studying changes in the land in this critical period of environmental history.

“For the purpose of research, it’s easier and faster (to use GIS maps).”

–Julianna Granzoti

Choyce Chappell is in her 5th year of study at UPEI. She is completing a major in Environmental Studies with a specialty in thought and practice, and minors in Diversity and Social Justice Studies and Computer Science. Although Choyce said that geography was never an interest to her until a special topics course, Introduction to GIS, sparked her interest. Through GIS, she believes she can bring her diverse interests together. Choyce is completing a directed studies course in GIS for Humanities Research with Dr. MacFadyen at the GeoREACH Lab. This means through working at the lab she is completing an upper year university credit.

Choyce has used GIS programs, namely ArcGIS and QGIS, to digitize maps in order to turn flat images into interactive layers. This allows Choyce and other researchers to plot data and compare environmental topics on the island.

“I found using GIS could put me in the middle of the Liberal Arts, the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and computational sciences. I thought it was a good way to bring all of my really diverse interests together.”

–Choyce Chappell

“There are different ways of representing data other than in writing” explains Nick Scott, a History student in his final year of study at UPEI. Nick describes himself as one of the GeoREACH Lab’s “explorers”; one of his main duties involves summarizing different historical primary sources so that other students can use them for various projects. He aides the other student researchers in locating particular areas to study and documents of interest so they can proceed with their projects. Nick has a knowledge of PEI’s social history and local geography, which helps him guide other lab members to locations or topics he can recognize as important research areas.

“In this job, there’s been a lot of freedom for different students to utilize their different backgrounds and skills in ways that are useful to the projects.”

–Nick Scott

For more information on the GeoREACH Lab, visit the GeoREACH website at UPEI.