GIS, Prosopography, and History

East Asian Languages and Civilization

Middle-Period Discourse on the Zhong Guo: The Central Country

English: During the middle period (8th - 15th century) literati began to discuss Zhong guo as both historical place and as culture. Although such writing made a clear distinction between Zhong guo as the central and superior spatiocultural entity and the surrounding peoples and states (the Yi di), these writers were also opposed to an expansionist foreign policy that tried to incorporate outsiders into the empire. In contrast foreign conquerors typically avoided the discourse of Zhong guo and instead used ethnicity as basis for defining membership in their empires. Although this was a means legislating privileges for the conquering minority it also removed the limits on imperial expansion that were inherent in the discourse of the Zhong guo. Chinese: 在近古時期(八至十五世紀)，士人開始將「中國」同時視為「歷史地 點」與「文化」而進行討論。 雖然這類著作將「中國」視作處於中央並具優 越性的空間 — 文化主體，而將之與其周圍的人民，國家(夷狄)做出清楚 的區分，然而這些作者同時也反對試圖將外人納入其帝國的擴張性對外政 策。 相反的，外國征服者通常避 免「中國」論述基礎。 雖然這是一種將少 數征服者所享有之特權合法化的方法，然而它也移除了內在於「中國」論述 中對帝國擴張的限制。East Asian Languages and Civilization

Review of The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, by Timothy Brook

East Asian Languages and Civilization

On an Infrastructure for Historical Spatial Analysis

East Asian Languages and Civilization

Review of Ancestral Leaves: A Family Journey through Chinese History

East Asian Languages and Civilization

On the Cyberinfrastructure for GIS-Enabled Historiography

From a historian's perspective, the use of GIScience and technology in the study of history holds the promise of an integration of historical and geographic modes of analysis. The national geographic information systems (GIS) that provide extensive coverage of changes in administrative structures over time provide important support for GIS-enabled historiography. Other parts of the cyberinfrastructure necessary to support collaborative research in a digital environment are now beginning to emerge, but a world-historical gazetteer, an essential tool for linking historical data to mapped places, has yet to be developed. 就史学者的角度而言, 在历史研究中运用地理信息科学与技术, 具有整合历史与地理分析模式的前景。全国地理信息系统 (GIS) 广泛地包覆了行政结构随着时间的变迁, 为由地理信息系统促成的历史地理学提供了重要的支援。信息基础建设中, 支援在数码环境中合作研究的其他必要部分目前正逐渐浮现, 但全球性的历史地名词典——一个将历史数据连结至已绘製于地图上之地方的必要工具——仍然尚未建立。 Desde la perspectiva del historiador, el uso de SIGciencia y tecnología en el estudio de la historia es algo prometedor para la integración de los modos de análisis históricos y geográficos. Los sistemas de información geográfica (SIG) nacionales que dan amplia cobertura a los cambios que ocurren a través del tiempo en las estructuras administrativas, proveen apoyo importante a la historiografía en la que los SIG han sido protagónicos. Otras partes de la ciber-infraestructura que se requiere para la investigación colaborativa en un entorno digital están ahora empezando a aparecer, aunque un diccionario histórico-geográfico mundial—herramienta esencial para enlazar los datos históricos con los lugares cartografiados—todavía está por realizarse.East Asian Languages and Civilization

Review of No Dig, No Fly, No Go: How Maps Restrict and Control, by Mark Monmonier

East Asian Languages and Civilization

Extending WorldMap to Make It Easier for Humanists and Others to Find, Use, and Publish Geospatial Information

WorldMap is being developed by the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University as an open source and open access online platform for visualizing and sharing spatial data. It has attracted considerable use since released in July of 2011. We propose making improvements to WorldMap which will transform it from mapping portal to geospatial node on the web. We will develop a new data catalog to expose WorldMap contents for interactive use in systems outside WorldMap. We will gather map metadata from map servers around the world to add to this catalog, eventually maintaining a complete index of map services. To improve search in a metadata-weak map services environment we will add the capability to search by time; develop a mechanism for exposing feature level text to layer search; and use rankings, usage statistics and internal links to weight search results. We will also enable users to create temporal gazetteers and contribute them to a common crowd-sourced gazetteer

Embracing Geographic Analysis Beyond Geography - Harvard's Center for Geographic Analysis Enters its 5th Year

Without a department of geography, Harvard University established the Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA) in 2006 to support research and teaching of all disciplines across the University with emerging geospatial technologies. In the past four and a half years, CGA built an institutional service infrastructure and unleashed an increasing demand on geographic analysis in many fields. CGA services range from helpdesk, project consultation, training, hardware/software administration, community building, to system development and methodology research. Services often start as an application of existing GIS technology, eventually contributing to the study of geographic information science in many ways. As a new generation of students and researchers growing up with Google Earth and the like, their demand for geospatial services will continue to push CGA into new territories.East Asian Languages and Civilization