Undergraduate Honors Thesis
UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
“Thematic and Design Paradigms in Minnesota’s Official Highway Maps, 1936-2018”
This project worked to investigate the ways that a seemingly straightforward object, a state highway map, can use design and thematic choices to support or discourage a feminist view of space and place.
Presentations
Virtual Oral presentation at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Provost's Honors Symposium on May 1, 2020
Oral presentation at the West Lakes Division of the Association of American Geographers on October 25, 2019 (Second place in the Undergraduate Oral Presentation Competition)
Oral presentation at the annual meeting of the North American Cartographic Information Society's in Tacoma, Washington on October 17, 2019
Poster presented at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. on April 5, 2019
Poster presented at the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity in Eau Claire, WI on May 1-2, 2019
myersjc2572_final paper_spring_2020.pdfA substantial part of this project was devoted to a content analysis of map elements and themes, and I was able to use this information to design an updated, feminist version of the state highway map. This project was completed as my undergraduate capstone thesis in 2020, and since then, I have committed myself to learning more about feminist data visualization, and how it can influence my cartography and design choices in any project.
Original Map, 2019 MN State Highway Map
Updated map with feminist data visualization principles, Josie Myers, 2020