This January 16, from 3-4 pm, Garrett Dash Nelson, Curator of Maps and Director of Geographic Scholarship at the Boston Public Library's Leventhal Map Center will speak about his journey from graduate school into curatorial work, and the challenges and opportunities that curating holds.   

Nelson is a historical geographer whose research focuses on placemaking, planning, and the role of maps in the creation of civic knowledge. He holds a BA from Harvard College, an MA from the University of Nottingham, a PhD in Geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he was recently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows and Department of Geography at Dartmouth College. Nelson has contributed to the ​Boston Globe​ Ideas section, ​CityLab, Places Journal, ​and ​Zócalo Public Square.​ He is an active member of the Critical GIS and Geohumanities research communities, and is currently working on a book, The Limits of Here: Contested Geographies of Community, Polity, and Place​.