2026/05/05 by Carolyn Fish · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Historical Geography and Geographical Thought #Geographic Information Systems Studies #Geography Education and Pedagogy
paper · doi:10.1080/15230406.2026.2657866
This paper is based on the CaGIS Early Career Scholar keynote I gave at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) meeting for Cartography and Mapping Specialty Group (CMSG) in Detroit, MI, in March 2025. In this paper, I interweave my personal journey in cartography from initial enthusiasm to disillusionment to a reignited excitement for maps. I also illustrate how maps are becoming even more center stage in 2025 with their use as powerful political artifacts that shape narratives. While the Trump administration offers the potential for despair, my goal is to illustrate that we can remain hopeful and do the hard (cartographic) work amid disruption and chaos. My past research on how maps are used in the media serves as a framing for the current moment and the use of maps across the political spectrum. I also identify the ways in which scholars at the AAG were doing the hard work of creating and sharing hopeful maps using storytelling and emotions in place-based mapping, and through speaking truth to power in the wake of oligarchy, control, and artificial intelligence through mapping as resistance. I conclude with an outlook on the future of maps and mapping.