Sébastien Caquard, PhD

I am a professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University (Montréal Tiohtià:ke). My research lies at the intersection of Cartography and Oral History. I am a mapmaker interested in mapping stories to better understand the complex relationships that exist between places, narratives, memories and maps. As the founder and director of the Geomedia Lab, I have led the development of Atlascine, an open source mapping application dedicated to map stories in depth and to reflect on cartographic processes and practices. Atlascine has been used to produce several online atlases, including The Atlas of Rwandan Life Stories. Over the years I had the opportunity to serve as: lead co-director of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS) (2020-23); Founding member of the MappingBack collective (2017); Chair of the Commission on “Art and Cartography” of the International Cartographic Association (ICA) (2012-19); Graduate Program Director of the Master of Environmental Assessment (2018-22); and instigator of the flying less policy in the department of Geography, Planning and Environment.

Recently Funded Projects

1. (Re)tracer la mémoire cartographique (SSHRC Knowledge) (Principal Investigator) (2023-28)
2. Exposition "Cartographier la mémoire : Rwanda, génocide et exil" (SSHRC connection) (Principal Investigator) (2023)
   
3. Enhancing Atlascine Mapping Platform, CANARIE Research Software Program (Principal Investigator) (2018-20 & 2020-23)
4. Indigenous Stewardship of Environment and Alternative Development (INSTEAD) (FRQSC Regroupement Stratégique) (co-applicant / Principal Investigator: Colin Scott, McGill University) (2020-26)
   

Current/Recent Graduate Students

Courses taught

GEOG 466 - Geomedia and the Geoweb
HENV 615 / 805 - Research Proposal Seminar
ENVS 664 - Field course in EA
ENVS 653 - GIS for Environmental Impact Assessment
ENVS 601 - Environmental Impact Assessment
GEOG 363 / URBS 335 - Geographic Information Systems

Software

1. ATLASCINE: unique online cartographic application (open source) dedicated to reveal and study the geographies of stories. Used to produce different online atlases including The Atlas of Rwandan Life Stories, the atlas La Ville Extraordinaire, the atlas Raconte-moi Riopelle and the Atlas of the Intangible Heritage of Parc-Extension

Special Issues

1. Griffin A. and Caquard S. (Guest eds.) (2018) Maps and Emotions, Cartographic Perspectives 91
2. Caquard S. and Joliveau T. (Guest eds.) (2016/2017) La mise en carte des récits : outils, pratiques et réflexions, M@ppemonde, 118 & 121

Papers in Refereed Journals

1. Alavez J and Caquard S (2023) Mapping-Ofrenda: Mapping as Mourning in the Context of Migration, Journal of Cultural Geography 40:1, 21-46 https://doi.org/10.1080/08873631.2023.2187490
2. Olmedo É, and Caquard S (2022) Mapping the Skin and the Guts of Stories: A Dialog Between Geolocated and Dislocated Cartographies, Cartographica 57:2, pp. 127-146, https://doi.org/10.3138/cart-2021-0006
3. Shahamati S., Denieul L., Baumann Y., Shaw E, and Caquard S (2022) uMap: A Free Open-Source Alaternative to Google My Maps, Cartographic Perspectives 99, https://doi.org/10.14714/CP99.1729
4. Caquard S., Shaw E., and Alavez J (2021) How Distant is Close Enough? Assessing the Geographic Distortions of a Distant Hearing Methodology for Mapping Life Stories, GeoHumanities, https://doi.org/10.1080/2373566X.2021.1965898
5. Alavez J., Rachédi L. and Caquard S. (2021) (Deep) Mapping Post Mortem Geographies in the Context of Migration, From the European South Journal 8: 29-46, ISSN 2531-4130
6. McGurk T. and Caquard S. (2020) To what extent online mapping can be decolonial? A journey throughout Indigenous cartography in Canada, The Canadian Geographer: 1-16, https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12602
   
7. Caquard S. and Griffin A. (2019) Mapping Emotional Cartography, Cartographic Perspectives 91: 4-16 (available here or on demand)
8. Joliveau T., Noucher M., Couderchet L. and Caquard S. (2018) Enseigner le géoweb à distance par la pratique et la critique, Ingénierie des Systèmes d'Information 5/2017: 11-33.
9. Caquard S. and Dimitrovas S. (2017) StoryMaps & Co. The state of the art of online narrative cartography, M@ppemonde 121, 1-31 (Available here or on demand)
10. Caquard S. and Joliveau T. (2016) Penser et activer les relations entre cartes et récits, M@ppemonde 118, 1-7 (Available here or on demand)
11. Caquard S. (2015) Cartography III: A post-representational perspective on cognitive cartography, Progress in Human Geography 39(2) 225-235 (doi: 10.1177/0309132514527039) (Available here or on demand)

Book chapters & other papers

1. Olmedo É, Kayiganwa E and Caquard S (forthcoming 2024) Co-Creative Mapping of Memory, the handbook of Cartographic Humanities, T Rossetto and L Lo Presti (eds); Routledge
2. Caquard S. (2020) Ces liens que tissent les cartes textiles / Textile maps' ties that bind, in K. Vaughan, You Are Here * Vous êtes ici, Montreal: Centre des arts visuels et Galerie McClure, 15-18
3. Caquard S. (2020) Atlases Online, In A. Kobayashi (Ed.) International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2nd edition, Elsevier, 235-241 https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10599-2
4. Caquard S., Shaw E., Alavez J., and Dimitrovas S. (2019) Mapping Memories of Exiles: Combining Conventional and Alternative Cartographic Approaches, in S. de Nardi, H. orange, E. Koskinen-Koivisto, D. Drozdzewski & S. High (eds.), Memoryscape Handbook, Routledge, 52-66
5. Yang M and Caquard S. (2019) Mapping The Shawshank Redemption: Film Tourism, Geography and Social Media, in A. Escher, C. Lukinbeal and S. Zimmermann (eds), Media's Mapping Impulse, Verlag, 281-300
6. Valcourt T. and Caquard S. (2019). From Earthrise to Google Earth: The Vanishing of the Vanishing Point, in N. Duxbury, W. F. Garrett-Petts and A. Longley (eds.) Artistic Approaches to Cultural Mapping: Activating Imaginaries and Means of Knowing, Routledge, 278-295.
7. Caquard S., Lucchesi A., Studnicki-Gizbert D., Temper L. and McGurk T. (2019) Using maps as a weapon to resist extractive industries on Indigenous territories, The Conversation, April 22, 2019 (https://theconversation.com/using-maps-as-a-weapon-to-resist-extractive-industries-on-indigenous-territories-111472)
8. Ribeiro D. M. and Caquard S. (2018). Cartography and Art. The Geographic Information Science & Technology Body of Knowledge, J.P. Wilson (ed.) DOI: 10.22224/gistbok/2018.1.4
   http://gistbok.ucgis.org/bok-topics/cartography-and-art
9. Caquard S. (2015). "Cinematic Cartography", in Mark Monmonier (ed.) Cartography in the Twentieth Century, Volume Six of The History of Cartography, The University of Chicago Press, 226-227.
10. Caquard S. (2015). "Cartography & Narrative", in Mark Monmonier (ed.) Cartography in the Twentieth Century, Volume Six of The History of Cartography, The University of Chicago Press, 986-991.

Organization of Workshops & Events

1. Exposition "Cartographies de la mémoire - Atlas des récits de vie Rwandais // Mapping Memory - Atlases or Rwandan Life Stories, Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, Apr 28 - May 18, 2023 (co-organized with É. Olmedo)
   
2. Mapping Stories: Alternative Methods, Tools and Practice - A series of 4 workshops, Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, Fall 2020 (co-organized with S. Shahamati, L. Denieul, E. Olmedo, J. Alavez, E. Shaw, S. Bengle, K. Pinvic and Y. Baumann)
3. Conversations around Maps & Stories, Series of 4 online public conversations with 10 invited speakers, Feb-June 2021, COHDS, Montreal (co-organized with S. Shahamati, L. Denieul, E. Olmedo, J. Alavez and E. Shaw)
4. Mapping Difficult Stories, Paper Session, conference of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Washington DC, Apr 6, 2019 (co-organized with A. Knowles)
   
5. MappingBack: Designing Alternative Indigenous Maps, Indigenous Mapping Workshop 2018, Montreal, Aug. 20-23, 2018 (co-organized with Annita Lucchesi, Tom McGurk & Heather Elliott)
6. MappingBack: Indigenous Cartographies of Extractive Conflicts, Concordia University, Montréal, Oct 14-16, 2017 (co-organized with Leah Temper, Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert, Tom McGurk)
7. Maps and Emotions, Washington DC, July 1-2, 2017 (co-organized with Amy Griffin and Alex Kent)
8. Mapping my own life story, Concordia University, May 18, 25 and June 9, 2017 (co-organized with Stefanie Dimitrovas, Emory Shaw, José Alavez as well as three artists and four storytellers