Section 1: Visualizing Edward P. Jones's Short Fiction
ArcGIS Maps by Ahmed Foggie
By Kenton Rambsy
This project is the result of a collaboration with the University of Texas at Arlington’s Data CAVE directed by Peace Williamson. This center, housed in the UTA’s library, provides support and services centering on data-driven research, e-science, and digital humanities data analysis. For this publication, Williamson was the lead visual editor who guided our efforts transforming quantitative data and geographic coordinates into useful maps and graphs.
This project contains three ArcGIS Maps and four Tableau Public Visualizations. These visual guides were created using metadata from “The Edward P. Jones Dataset.” Information visualizations are metrics expressed as graphics. Moreover, information visualizations allow large amounts of (often complex) data to be depicted visually in ways that reveal patterns and other features of the data in a very efficient way.
The maps in this publication offer a historical overview of DC’s once predominantly Black neighborhoods. Readers can peruse the maps to understand the contexts through which Jones uses the nation’s capital as the backdrop for his fictional stories. Across both collections, characters travel to and from recurring settings in DC. These locations highlight cultural aspects of Washington's Black community. Taken together, these visual guides act as supplementary materials that guide readers as they read Jones’s short fiction.