news

Miniature updates and announcements from January 2016 onward.

2022

Featured

7 Sep: Returning to MSUP Thesis and Capstone advising for the 2022-2023 AY. Let’s do this!

6 Sep: Learning Critical GIS: a Workbook is going live for students (and teachers) of context-driven, urban GIS. More updates through the Fall 2022 semester.

6 Sep: The Fall 2022 GIS course starts with an awesome teaching team: Alanna Browdy, Daniel Froehlich, and Mario Giampieri!

Aug: "Remapping John Snow's Cholera Map, London, 1854" featured as the Key Visual of the 7th Lindau Meeting on Economic Sciences.

The Nomad Collection minting starts 22 Aug at earth.domains. Because dotEarth is building Atlas.

Mapping Historical New York receives Best Interactive/Digital map award and ties for Best in Show in the CaGIS 2021 Map Design competition. (Spring)

2021

Featured

Participating (remotely) at SSHA 2021 (11-14 Nov). Presenting recent work with G Baics on measuring spatial heterogeneity in 19th-C US cities on 12 Nov, and roundtable discussion with the MHNY project team on 11 Nov.

Mapping Historical New York: A Digital Atlas will launch with an event on 27 Oct. Register here.

Fall semester starts 9 Sep. Teaching Geographic Information Systems this term. [link connects to 2021 GIS Canvas page for registered students]

Mapping Historical New York project (with the Center for Spatial Research at GSAPP and the Columbia’s History Department) receives new grant from the Gardiner Foundation. (August)

False Color, a current and long-term project, now has a work-in-progress page featuring selected recent pieces.

The Advanced Spatial Analysis Spring 2021 Poster Session held online on 8 Apr. [Links to previous year’s coursework.]

Participating in Emergency Urbanism webinar, hosted by CU Global Center Amman on 13 Jan.

Spring semester starts 11 Jan. Teaching Advanced Spatial Analysis, a critical methodology seminar at GSAPP. [link connects to the course Canvas page and requires a Columbia login.]

2020

Featured

Quoted on the evolution of Tony Hsieh’s Downtown Project in Las Vegas in the New York Times on 28 Nov.

Speaking at GSAPP MSAAD’s Techno-Critical Assemblies series on 12 Nov. The talk: “Default Settings.”

Also advising MS in Urban Planning theses through the 2020-1 school year. [link connects to previous theses page.]

Fall semester starts 8 Sep. Teaching Geographic Information Systems this term. [link connects to 2019 GIS class]

Offering critical GIS tips in “GIS is not a Software: A Critical Primer and Tactical Glossary” for GSAPP students over zoom on 6 Aug.

210 Cities in San Diego receives Human Geography’s Cartography Spotlight, in the journal’s 2020 art contest. [Image links to the journal issue website. Click here for the project.]

LM is on leave during the Spring 2020 semester.

Participating in a Day of Concern on climate change, organized by the students at Friends’ Seminary high school in NYC on 7 Jan.

2019

NewsGallery2018-2019

Honored to Receive a 2019 Presidential Teaching Award from Columbia University at Commencement on 22 May.

Ways of Knowing Cities edited by Laura Kurgan and Dare Brawley (Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2019), including a chapter “Cartographies of Distance,” is launched along with several other new titles at Columbia GSAPP on 22 Nov.

In Chicago, 21-24 Nov for SSHA: (a) Discussant for the “Emerging Methods: Historical Cartography” panel on Friday, 22 Nov; (b) Presented “Testing Wirth: Exploring Population Size and Density in the 19th-Century American City” with G Baics.

Participated in the Buell Center’s day-long event “The Green New Deal: A Public Assembly” at the Queens Museum in NYC on 17 Nov.

The exhibition 210 Cities in San Diego opens at the Lightroom Gallery, with a public lecture, at Carleton University on 4 Nov.

Digital Urbanisms: a day-long conference organized by Leah, at Columbia GSAPP on 11 Oct.

Delivering a public lecture “Tracing, Charting, Mapping, Drawing: Analytical Cartography as Historical GIS“ at New Directions and Connections in British Urban History at New York University on 13 Sep.

Fall semester starts 3 Sep. Teaching Geographic Information Systems this term.

Delivering a faculty presentation at Columbia GSAPP’s 2019 Reunion festivities (and celebrating one of my alumni reunion classes) on 1 Jun.

Teaching “Mapping for the Urban Humanities: A Summer Institute,” 28 May - 6 Jun at Columbia’s Center for Spatial Research.

Presenting and discussing during a panel discussion on “Rethinking the [NYC] Grid” at the CUNY Graduate Center, with Gergely Baics and others on 6 May.

At AAG 2019 in Washington, DC: Presenting during the panel session “Pushing the Boundaries of Regional Infrastructure: The Washington DC Region in Focus” and very excited to serve as discussant for the panel session “Urban Historical GIS” — both are on 6 Apr.

Delivering a position paper “Revisiting Analytical Cartography as Critical GIS” at Doing Critical GIS (a Univ of Maryland Baltimore County pre-AAG workshop) on 1 Apr in Baltimore.

Delivering “Cartographies of Distance and Difference” (public talk) at Columbia Global Center | Beijing on 17 Mar. (A blog post after-the-fact with a couple photos here.)

23 Feb: Another installment in the Gotham Center’s expanded series on the myths surrounding the NYC grid, with G Baics: “Myth #10: Example of Laissez-Faire Planning.”

Spring 2019 semester starts 22 Jan. Teaching Advanced Spatial Analysis this term.

Spring 2019 semester starts 22 Jan. I’m also teaching Urban Datascapes this term.

2018

Featured

15 Dec: Short piece on the Gotham Center for New York City History’s blog, in their series debunking myths about the NYC street grid: “Myth 9: System of Block and Lot Divisions” with G Baics.

Delivering the keynote address at Hofstra University’s celebration of Geography Awareness Week on 15 Nov. The talk: “Digital Cartographies of Everyday Life.”

Presenting “Cartographies of Access, Opportunity, and Difference” on 25 Oct at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning 58th Annual Conference in Buffalo, NY.

Also advising MS in Urban Planning theses for the 2018-9 year.

Fall classes start 4 Sep. Teaching GIS this term.

June: New essay on The Avery Review: "Not Yet #AfterRikers: Looking for #JusticeInDesign," a review of the Van Alen Institute's Justice In Design report.

Speaking at the Athena conference “The Strip Urbanism & Beyond: Las Vegas from the Inside Out” on 11 Jun at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, co-sponsored by the Center for the Future of Places and the degree program in Urbanism Studies.

24 May: New on ARPA Journal, Issue 5 Conflicts of Interest: "Research Ransoms: On Expelling Undue Influence" LM in conversation with Samantha Parsons from UnKoch My Campus.

Speaking at Unlayerings: A Critical Conversation on Historical Geography on 17 May (keynote session) and the 18th (roundtable) of May at Dartmouth College in Hanover, VT. The talk: "Cartographic Distance and the Urban Humanities."

Presenting "Distanced: Remapping Access" at the AAG conference in New Orleans, 10-14 Apr as part of a special session on Mapping Urban In/Justice.

Participating in the Impact Data Lab workshop 11-14 Mar in Amman, organized by Visualizing Impact and Studio-X Amman, where I'll serve as a mentor and advisor to the design teams.

Giving a public talk "Difference and Distance" at Turbo on 12 Mar in Amman, Jordan, organized by Studio-X Amman. [photo by Emad Zyoud]

Participating in VizTech: Converging Pedagogies and Practices at GSAPP on 16 Feb.

Speaking at the Ways of Knowing Cities symposium (talk: "Cartographies of Distance") hosted by the Center for Spatial Research at Columbia in New York on 9 Feb.

Also: Teaching Advanced Spatial Analysis this term.

Spring 2018 classes start 16 Jan. Teaching the Digital Restructuring of Urban Space seminar this term.

2017

Featured

13 Nov: "The Grid as Algorithm for Land Use: a Reappraisal of the 1811 Manhattan Grid" is now available online in Planning Perspectives.

Presenting two papers at the annual meeting of the SSHA in Montreal, both on 1 Nov. One on methodologies of H-GIS, the other on residential (in)stability in industrializing Copenhagen.

Presenting on urban planning's engagement with mass imprisonment at the annual meeting of the ACSP in Denver, CO on 14 Oct.

Speaking in GSAPP's Lectures in Planning Series (LiPS) this fall! "Critical Distance: Notes on GIS from the Ground." is 12 Sep.

Speaking on "Maps & Mayhem" at the Lady Science Forum hosted by BioDigital at the NYPL Grand Central Library on 30 Aug. The event is "Planning for Sharing: The Science of Urban Design."

Speaking at the University of Copenhagen on "Density & Connectivity: Land Use in Midnineteenth-Century New York" with G Baics on 19 Jun.

Keynote speaker with Gergely Baics at "Humanizing Data: Data, Humanities, and the City" a day-long symposium organized by the NYU Urban Democracy Lab on 8 Apr.

Speaking and moderating at "Big Data, Urban Data" organized by the APA Metro student representatives, at GSAPP 31 Mar.

Speaking at GeoNYC's "No One Ever Said Mapping Time Easy" on 13 Feb.

"Density & Connectivity: Land Use in Midnineteenth-Century New York" on view at Barnard College's McCagg Gallery 20 Feb - 3 Mar.

2016

Speaking at the SVA Design Research, Writing, and Criticism lecture series on 6 Dec in NYC.

Cher finissage event in Copenhagen on 11 Nov, to close out the year-long project for the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2016: After Belonging. Join us that afternoon at the Danish Architecture Center.

Speaking on 29 Oct at the Columbia Women's Leadership Conference on intersectionality and the production of gendered space in cities.

"Zoning Before Zoning: Land Use & Density in Mid-19th-Century New York" with G Baics (article in AAAG) reported in The Atlantic's CityLab by Richard Florida.

Presenting follow-up research on the NYC street grid with G Baics at the Urban History Association 2016 conference in Chicago, 13-16 Oct.

Presenting at the Architectural League of New York's Annual Student Program on 24 Sep. A full day of diverse practices. More info and registration here.

Presentation and Panel Discussion at the AIA Center for Architecture on 19 Sep. The topic: "Designing for People Using Evidence." More info and RSVP here.

The Oslo Architecture Triennale 2016: After Belonging opened on 8 Sep and will remain on view until 27 Nov. If you're in Norway, check out the Cher photo booth!

The prototype-as-provocation, Cher officially launched at the OAT opening. Check it out at cher.city (desktop or mobile browser).

The planning team for New York City's first Cultural Plan was announced. Led by Hester Street Collective, Leah will be contributing data analysis and advanced mapping.

Presenting Cher at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design on 22 June in Copenhagen, Denmark.

At the SculptureCenter on 15 June. " In/On Construction: Leslie Hewitt and Leah Meisterlin in Conversation" to discuss Leslie's Collective Stance at the Center.

Speaking at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Met Breuer on 8 June in NYC as part of "In Our Time: The Sharing Movement."

Teaching "Mapping for the Urban Humanities: A Summer Bootcamp," a summer intensive course on digital mapping for faculty, with the Center for Spatial Research at Columbia.

"Zoning Before Zoning: Land Use & Density in Midnineteenth-Century New York" (with G Baics) now available online in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers.

Very proud and excited to join the Metropolitan New York Library Council Board of Trustees!

Leah will join the full-time faculty at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation in the fall, teaching within the urban planning program.

Panel discussion to launch The Architecture Lobby's Asymmetric Labors: The Economy of Architecture in Theory & Practice at the Venice Biennale vernissage: 3PM on Friday, 27 May at the New Zealand Exhibition.

Presenting pedagogical lessons from Datascapes & the Informal City at Barnard's "Teaching through Technology: Faculty Reflections" on Thursday, 5 May.

Teaching the Rikers Studio in Architecture and Urban Design, with the Rikers Education Program at Columbia University's Center for Justice—a four-week course for Columbia students and 16-to-17-year-olds at Rikers Island.

Presenting "Alternative and Pluralistic Mappings of the City" at Reading the City 2 at the London School of Economics on 18 March.

Pecha Kucha presentation on urban planning practice at Columbia University GSAPP on 18 February.

"Cher" selected as one of five "In Residence" Intervention Strategies for the 2016 Oslo Architectural Triennale.