focus on week 4 reading and thinking about “Maps”.

How do maps frame ways of seeing? What does a map provide? What does it hide?

For this week’s discussion post, think critically about the function of maps. Rather than taking maps as given set of instructions for “understanding” space, think of them as advancing particularized ways of seeing. You can think about maps as communicating cultural values, as tools for cultural resistance, as justifications for increasing state power, as advancing imaginative geographies.

In one paragraph (300 words), discuss something you have been thinking about this week. This is an intentionally open prompt to allow you time to articulate a question, an idea, a connection that has come up for you this week. You can also use this space to vocalize something you do not understand, or are still working to understand. Must include at least one direct citation from this week’s reading; no bibliography necessary. You can draw on themes that have emerged in previous weeks, but must be a response to material discussed in week 4.

If you need more guidance on what to write, here is a suggestion: you could use this space to develop your close reading skills. Choose one to two sentence from a reading, and walk your reader through what the diction, syntax, and tone do to the author’s meaning. Why did the author use one word over another? How does it express the voice (individual style) of an author? How does it elaborate or clarify the main argument of the article?