This document discusses a project that uses GIS mapping to analyze how contemporary Southern cookbooks define and depict the American South. It notes that the number of cookbooks marketed as Southern has significantly increased in recent decades. The project aims to map locations mentioned in cookbooks, analyze authors' definitions of "Southern," and evaluate claims of authenticity. The presenter collected data from several cookbooks and learned GIS mapping tools over the summer. While the original mapping software had limitations, the presenter believes the interactive data visualization tool Tableau may help better publish and collect the project's data.

1. Mapping the Imagined South:
GIS Mapping of Contemporary Southern Cookbooks
Carrie
Helms
Tippen
Chatham
University
ctippen@chatham.edu
@chtippen

2. Questions of this Project
• Rapid
growth
in
cookbooks
marketed
as
“Southern.”
(Lily
Kelting,
“The
Entanglement
of
Nostalgia
and
Utopia
in
Contemporary
Southern
Food
Cookbooks”)
• 1990-­‐2000:
2%
of
American
cookbooks
have
“South”
in
the
title
• 2000—2010:
3%
• 2010-­‐2015:
7.5%
• Where
is
the
South?
• What
do
writers
mean
when
they
say
“Southern”?
• Who
do
writers
mean
when
they
say
“Southerners”?
• What
supports
writers’
claims
of
authenticity?

3. Digital Humanities Summer Institute
• University
of
Victoria,
Summer
2015
• ArcMAP,
QGIS
• How
to
build
an
effective
database
for
collecting
and
coding
place
names
and
coordinates.
• Density
Mapping

4. The State of the Project
• 8 complete
data
sets.
• 4
in
progress.
• 3 more
by
September
1.
• Targeted
for
online
journal
Southern
Spaces
series
“Digital
Spaces.”

5. Data Collecting
• Coordinates
from
Google
Maps
• Qualitative
Description
• Page,
Chapter,
Author
• Multiple
Descriptions
• Groups

6. Limitations
• ArcMAP only
available
for
PC,
in
one
computer
lab
on
my
campus.
• ArcMAP only
makes
”still”
images,
not
interactive.
• ArcMAP is
hard.

7. Mapping with
Tableau
Sean
Brock,
Heritage.
2014.
Hugh
Acheson,
A
New
Turn
in
the
South.
2011.

8. Counting with
Tableau
Sean
Brock,
Heritage.
2014.
Hugh
Acheson,
A
New
Turn
in
the
South.
2011.

9. Comparing
with Tableau
Hugh
Acheson,
A
New
Turn
in
the
South.
2011.
Sean
Brock,
Heritage.
2014.

10. Sharing with Tableau?
• The
ability
to
share
online
and
allow
viewers
to
query
data
IF
they
have
permission
as
a
Tableau
user.
• A
better
way
to
publish
interactively?
• A
faster
way
to
collect
data?
Email:
ctippen@chatham.edu
Twitter:
@chtippen