Professor Derek Smith awarded SSHRC Grant

Derek Smith is the Principal Investigator for the following Insight Development SSHRC Grant:

Mapping Indigenous Geographies: Investigating the Cultural Landscapes of the Yucatan Peninsula from a Mayan Perspective

This two-year grant will support a new research program that will investigate how the Maya of the Yucatan region of Mexico conceptualize the cultural landscapes surrounding their communities, and how their perspectives differ from what is represented in the “official” cartographies of the state.  Field research will include local investigators who will help test new participatory mapping methods in three neighbouring communities. The features of the landscape to be mapped will include such things as traditional resource use areas, sacred water bodies, and historic sites. These kinds of places almost always have names, and as such, documenting and analyzing toponyms (i.e., placenames) will be a focus of the mapping methodology. This research aims to advance our understanding of indigenous knowledges and contribute to theory in critical cartography and postcolonialism, and at the same time counter marginalizing cartographic narratives by producing maps made by local community members that show what they consider to be relevant and that reflect their own distinct world view.