I am a professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University (Montréal Tiohtià:ke). My research lies at the intersection of Cartography and Oral History. I am a mapmaker interested in mapping stories to better understand the complex relationships that exist between places, narratives, memories and maps. As the founder and director of the Geomedia Lab, I have led the development of Atlascine, an open source mapping application dedicated to map stories in depth and to reflect on cartographic processes and practices. Atlascine has been used to produce several online atlases, including The Atlas of Rwandan Life Stories. Over the years I had the opportunity to serve as: lead co-director of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS) (2020-23); Founding member of the MappingBack collective (2017); Chair of the Commission on “Art and Cartography” of the International Cartographic Association (ICA) (2012-19); Graduate Program Director of the Master of Environmental Assessment (2018-22); and instigator of the flying less policy in the department of Geography, Planning and Environment.
Current Graduate Students
- Baumann Y. Montréal, villa abordable ? Évolution des marchés immobiliers et pressions résidentielles (co-supervision with Violaine Jolivet, Université de Montréal) (Funded by SSHRC) (PhD started in 2020)
- Olmedo E., Post-Doctoral Fellow (Funded by SSHRC Banting program) (started in 2019)
- Denieul L., What can mapping do for Indigenous land defenders in their political campaigns for land repatriation? (Funded by FRQSC) (PhD started in 2019)
- Shahamati S., Mapping the Intangible City (PhD started in 2018)
- Alavez J., If I die far from you: Deep mapping postmortem mobilities of exile in Quebec (Funded by FRQSC) (PhD started in 2016)
Courses taught
GEOG 466 - Geomedia and the Geoweb
HENV 615 / 805 - Research Proposal Seminar
ENVS 664 - Field course in EA
ENVS 653 - GIS for Environmental Impact Assessment
ENVS 601 - Environmental Impact Assessment
GEOG 363 / URBS 335 - Geographic Information Systems