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About the Project
Contact the Project Leaders
Alejandro Puga
Associate Professor
Modern Languages
DePauw University
Glen David Kuecker
Professor
Department of History
DePauw University
Mapping the Megalopolis aims to produce an urban atlas of Mexico City. The project has 10 participants from 7 schools: Allegheny, Antioch, DePauw, Hope, Kenyon, Oberlin, and Wabash. Our atlas is inspired by Rebecca Solnit’s Infinite City, which provides a collection of maps, each framed by interpretative essays, that attempt to capture the many ways San Francisco can be represented. Our atlas brings together scholars from the humanities and social sciences in an integrated studies approach to Solnit’s challenge of making the infinite urban form knowable. We anchor our approach by linking Angel Rama’s The Lettered City with Henri Lefebvre’s “right to the city.” Bringing these understandings of the urban form into conversation, our collaboration seeks to comprehend Mexico City, a megalopolis of 25 million people. Mapping the Megalopolis uses maps generated by GIS, which are mounted on a web platform where they are linked to interpretative essays. The web platform also provides a range of resources, such as a project bibliography, digital images and sounds, and our project research blog. The research and digital product provide resources for teaching collaboration between participating institutions. The group plans a webinar for GLCA schools, which will feature discussion of our collaborative research process, the maps, and our teaching collaborations. By project’s end our collective intends to publish a collection of essays and maps modeled after Solnit’s Infinite City.
Mapping the Megalopolis is made possible through the support of the Great Lakes College Association's Expanding Collaboration Initiative.
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