We study how places carry meaning, memory, and power — and we build new tools to represent that meaning cartographically.
Rethinking GIS as a medium for poetic dwelling on the digital earth — joining critical theory, care ethics, and cartographic practice. We study the social implications of emerging GIS technologies and develop methods that keep human meaning, memory, and ambiguity at the center.
How do deepfake satellite imagery, location spoofing, and synthetic places challenge what we mean by spatial truth? The lab investigates the technical, ethical, and epistemological consequences of geospatial misinformation in a post-truth world.
GeoAI uncertainty, ethics, and the limits of automation. We build and critique large-scale spatial models — from Earth embeddings to neural sensing of emotion — and ask what placelessness, bias, and reflexivity mean for the next generation of geographic intelligence.
A partial list of awarded grants supporting work in the lab.
| Years | Project | Sponsor | Amount | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020—24 | Examining Shifting Geographies of Historically Underrepresented Groups | NSF Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences (1951072) | $395,839 | Co-PI |
| 2019—21 | Coastal Hazard Planning in Time | NSF Coastlines and People EAGER (1940024) | $297,288 | Co-PI |
| 2024 | GeoAI for Social Sciences and Humanities | UW Data Science Minor Grant | $12,800 | PI |
| 2023 | Critical and Creative (Un)Mapping of the Capitol Hill Organized Protest | UW Humanities Data Science Summer Institute | ~$22,000 | Co-PI |
| 2022 | Detecting Deepfaked Satellite Imagery with Machine Learning | Samsung / Joule | $64,970 | PI |
| 2022 | Better Methods to Enumerate Individuals Experiencing Homelessness | UW Population Health Initiative | $106,822 | Co-PI |
| 2022 | Web Programming for GIS Applications | UW Data Science Minor Grant | $20,000 | PI |
| 2021—22 | Improving Enumeration of Homelessness Using Cell Phone Location Data | Urban@UW Research Spark | $19,299 | Co-PI |
| 2020—21 | CORAL Study (PETAL Network) | NIH NHLBI (3U01HL123009-06S2) | $69,173 | Site PI |
| 2020 | COVID-19 Smart Dashboard for Risk to Washington Workers | UW Population Health Initiative | $19,537 | PI |
| 2018—19 | The Global Refugee Atlas | National Geographic (NGS-51699S-18) | $68,383 | PI |
| 2018—19 | Fanno Creek Watershed Geovisualization | Clean Water Service | $50,000 | PI |
| 2015—16 | Rajawali Fellowship | Harvard Kennedy School | $50,000 | PI |