The “oppression” and “injustice” of maps is the subject of a Purdue University course offered this semester.
“Critical GIS,” taught by Professor Melissa Chomintra, “will provide students with a critical overview of the role power, culture, justice and injustice, and oppression have played in the practice and history of cartography.”
“In this hands-on course students will learn the basic [geographic information system] skills and techniques that will help them understand place and space through critical theories of race, gender, sexuality, indigeneity, class, ability, colonialism, and the State,” according to the course description.
Students at the public university in West Lafayette will learn how “maps can expose and resist oppression and inequality.”