The GIS Assistant Program has two main objectives: (1) to facilitate student learning of spatial data analysis and (2) to facilitate the use of spatial data analysis techniques in faculty teaching and scholarship. The Program consists of GIS-savvy students available to help faculty, staff, and students with GIS-related needs. Assistantships are paid positions and Assistants work an average of 5 hours per week. Assistance can be large-scale such as helping a faculty member design a course module or implement spatial analyses for a research project. Or faculty can request someone for specific short-term tasks such as geocoding a dataset or creating a map.
GIS Assistants
Fall 2023 & Spring 2024
| WesGIS Fellow | Project | Professor/Advisor |
Theodore Zarobell (’24 CSS) |
Digital Storytelling with the Carceral Connecticut Project | M. Hovhannisyan |
Jonah Yas (’25 BIOL, ENVS) |
Food insecurity in Buenos Aires during the Argentine Dictatorship (1976-1983) | C. Fullilove |
Aidan Trendell (’25 E&ES, CIS) |
Mapping deglaciation along the Glacier Express | S. O’Connell |
Iris Jiang (’25 E&ES, COMP) |
Digital Storytelling with the Carceral Connecticut Project | M. Hovhannisyan |
Madeline Frew (’24 ENVS, GOVT) |
GIS Fellow peer-director | D. Griffith |
Xingyan Guo (’25 ANTH) |
Mapping the needs of the Wesleyan Period Project | D. Colvin |
Mason Rounds (’25 ENVS, ENGL) |
Environmental Justice | University Network for Human Rights |
Anya Le (’25 BIOL, E&ES) |
Mapping Fossil Stories in the Joe Webb Peoples Museum | D. Griffith |
Alessandro Kashap (’25) |
Racialized capitalism and control, Carceral Connecticut Project | J. Nasta |
Rishi Bhagat (’24 ECON) |
City Diplomacy | MA Haddad |
Linda Lu (’24 ANTH) |
Mapping Fossil Stories in the Joe Webb Peoples Museum | D. Griffith |
Sofie Reitema (’26 ECON, GOVT) |
Environmental Justice | University Network for Human Rights |
Kolby Durocher (’25) |
God and Guns | J. Slaughter |
Fall 2022 & Spring 2023
| WesGIS Fellow | Project | Professor |
| Kolby Durocher (’25) |
Mapping Gentrification with Census Data | K. Boulware and J. Torgerson |
Joaquina Guevara (’23) |
Mapping Gentrification with Census Data | K. Boulware and J. Torgerson |
Fletcher Levy (’25) |
Mapping Fossil Stories in the Joe Webb Peoples Museum | D. Griffith |
Hannah Steinberg (’24) |
Mapping Fossil Stories in the Joe Webb Peoples Museum | D. Griffith |
Reese Chahal |
Mapping the Borderlands: the U.S.-Mexico Border and Digital Storytelling | B. Winston |
Caroline Jenkins |
Schemers and Redeemers: Capitalism and Christianity in the Early Republic | J. Slaughter |
Kayla Loubriel (’22) |
Biome Awareness Disparity in the conservation and ecological literature | D. Griffith |
Linda Lu |
Musical Geographies of Central Asia | S. Daukeyeva |
Will Wallentine (’23) |
Mapping Fire Refugia | H. Poulos |
Drew Gessel |
Mapping the Soil Properties of Oaxaca, Mexico | L. Dolan |
Rishi Bhagat (’25) |
City Diplomacy and Foreign Direct Investment | MA Haddad |
Spring 2022 and before
| Semester | Professor | Course/Project | GIS Assistant |
| F 2021 | B. Chernoff | South American fishes and geologic maps | Thomas Davoren (’21 BA in E&ES, ’22 MA) |
| A. Quintman | Sacred sites in the Himalayas | Madeline Frew (’24) | |
| K. Diver | Island biogeography | Jenna Otaola (’22 E&ES) | |
| E. Gorlewski | Geographical patterns of the study abroad program; internationalizing the curriculum | Debbra Goh (’24) | |
| F 2020 & S 2021 | L. Dombrowski | History of Chinese Language Movie Theaters in North America | Benjy Cahill (’21 ENVS, HIST) |
| J. Slaughter | HIST313: Schemers and Redeemers: Capitalism and Religion in the Early Republic | Benjy Cahill | |
| J. Raynor | Quantifying the Economic Benefits of Apex Predators: Wolf Impacts on Deer-Vehicle Collisions |
Andrew Hennessy (’21 E&ES, BIOL) | |
| J. Torgerson | Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor; Constantinople as Palimpsest |
 Jesse Simmons (’21 ANTH, BIOL) |
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| S. O’Connell | Visualizing glaciers through maps | Andy Tan (’21 E&ES, ANTH, BIOL) | |
| F 2019, S 2020 | G. Shaw | Medieval mobility | Paul Willems (’20 PSYC) |
| J. TorgersonI. Bork-Goldfield | Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor German Jews: Their Journey to America and Return to the Old Country | Jesse Simmons (’21) |
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| H. Poulos & B. Chernoff | Population distribution of Agave plants in Big Bend National ParkSpatial patterns of hardhead silverside genetics | Emilio Weber (’20 AMST) |
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| S 2019 | K. Boulware & J. Jacobsen | Modeling gentrification in the U.S. | Jenny Aguiar (’19 SOC, Data Analysis) Grant Van Inwegen (’20 HIST, Data Analysis) |
| J. TorgersonI. Bork-Goldfield | Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor
German Jews: Their journey to America and Return to the Old Country |
Jesse Simmons (’21) |
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| F 2018 | P. Wagoner | ARHA 382 Treasure-Trove: Numismatics and the Archaeology of Money | Azher Jaweed (’19 HIST, ENVS) |
| K. Boulware & J. Jacobsen | Modeling gentrification in the U.S. | Jenny Aguiar (’19 SOC, Data Analysis)Grant Van Inwegen (’20 HIST, Data Analysis) |
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| S 2018 | B. Adams | SISP 245 Ethnography and Design | Louisa Winchell (‘18 ENGL, ENVS); Sophia Ptacek (‘18 SISP) |
| F 2017 | I. Bork-Goldfield | German Jews: Their journey to America and return to the Old Country | Louisa Winchell (‘18 ENGL, ENVS) |
| S. Versey | PSYC 325 Healthy Places: Practice, Policy, and Population Health | Louisa Winchell (‘18 ENGL, ENVS) | |
| S 2017 | D. Gandolfo | Course Materials; Story Maps; Georeference old Lima maps | Sam Raby (‘17 MATH) |
| K. Diver | QAC 231 Introduction to (Geo)Spatial Data Analysis and Visualization | Tessa Hill (‘16 E&ES, ‘17 E&ES-MA) | |
| G. Shaw | Travelers Lab | Elizaveta Kravchenko (‘19 PSYC, SISP) | |
| K. Birney & C. Parslow | CCIV 341Visualizing the Classical | Mira Klein (‘17 GOV, ENVS) | |
| M. Gilmore | Planetary geomorphology | Avi Stein (‘17 ASTR) | |
| P. Patton | LIDAR / drone | Will Speiser (‘17 E&ES) | |
| E. Charry | MUSC 275 Music and Downtown New York | Will Speiser (‘17 E&ES) | |
| S. Versey & H. Poulos | NYC and urban development project | Mira Klein (‘17 GOV, ENVS); Nadja Shannon-Dabek (‘17 ENGL, RELI) | |
| J. Torgerson | COL 128 Constantinople: From Rome to Istanbul | Nadja Shannon-Dabek (‘17 ENGL, RELI) | |
| B. Johnston | Disease in Japan | Elizaveta Kravchenko (‘19 PSYC, SISP) | |
| C. Patterson-Faye | SOC 399 Hot Mamas: Black Women, Body Size and Sexuality | Sam Raby (‘17 MATH) | |
| S. O’Connell | E&ES 199 Introduction to Environmental Science and Sustainability | Sam Raby (‘17 MATH) | |
| L. Bui | AMST 336 Comparative Asian and Latina/o Immigrant Experiences | Grace Wong (‘18 AFAM, GOV) | |
| E. Grimmer-Solem | Generating static + dynamic maps of traveler journeys for book | Sam Raby (‘17 MATH); Elizaveta Kravchenko (‘19 PSYC, SISP) | |
| S. Raby | QAC 420 Designing Mapping Technologies for Social Justice (student forum) | Mira Klein (‘17 GOV, ENVS) | |
| F 2016 | D. Gandolfo | Course Materials; Story Maps; Georeference old Lima maps | Sam Raby (‘17 MATH) |
| J. Kleindienst | Wesleyan campus tree map | Tessa Hill (‘16 E&ES, ‘17 E&ES-MA) | |
| K. Diver | WesGIS Website help | Grace Wong (‘18 AFAM, GOV) | |
| G. Shaw | Travelers Lab (Gary Shaw, History) | Elizaveta Kravchenko (‘19 PSYC, SISP) | |
| K. Birney & C. Parslow | CCIV 341 Visualizing the Classical (spring 2017 course) | Mira Klein (‘17 GOV, ENVS) | |
| M. Gilmore | Planetary geomorphology | Avi Stein (‘17 ASTR) | |
| P. Patton | E&ES 220 Geomorphology; LIDAR / drone | Will Speiser (‘17 E&ES) | |
| E. Charry | MUSC 275 Music and Downtown New York | Will Speiser (‘17 E&ES) | |
| S. Versey & H. Poulos | NYC and urban development project | Mira Klein (‘17 GOV, ENVS); Nadja Shannon-Dabek (‘17 ENGL, RELI) | |
| S 2016 | C. Fullilove | The Political Geography of Biodiversity | Mads O’Brien (‘16, E&ES, SISP); Remy Johnson (‘16 NS&B) |
| A. Hornstein | Words vs Action project | Mads O’Brien (‘16, E&ES, SISP); Sophie Breitbart (‘16 BIOL) | |
| G. Shaw | Medieval Bishop Movement | Stephanie Ling (‘16 MATH) | |
| C. Dimas | map making assistance and GIS instruction | Sophie Breitbart (‘16 BIOL) | |
| C. Maines | Architecture and Monastic Life to the 13th Century | Sophie Breitbart (‘16 BIOL) | |
| L. Bui | GIS instruction | Sophie Breitbart (‘16 BIOL) | |
| K. Diver | QAC 231 Introduction to (Geo)Spatial Data Analysis and Visualization | Tessa Hill (‘16 E&ES, ‘17 E&ES-MA) | |
| M. Katz | ARHA 211 Early Medieval Art: Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the Mediterranean | Sam Raby (‘17 MATH) | |
| D. Gandolfo | ANTH 249 From Metropolis to Megalopolis | Sam Raby (‘17 MATH) | |
| Y. Velez | map making assistance and GIS instruction | Grace Wong (’18 AFAM, GOV) | |
| F 2015 | C. Fullilove | The Political Geography of Biodiversity | Mads O’Brien (‘16, E&ES, SISP); Remy Johnson (‘16 NS&B) |
| G. Shaw | HIST 211 Digital History; Medieval Bishop Movement | Stephanie Ling (‘16 MATH) | |
| F. Cohan & D. Krizanc | BIOL/COMP 327 Evolutionary and Ecological Bioinformatics | Sophie Breitbart (‘16 BIOL) | |
| S 2015 | A. Williams | HIST 211 Digital History | Kate Cullen (‘16, E&ES, HIST) |
| C. Zamboni | ITAL 112 Intermediate Italian II | Kate Cullen (‘16, E&ES, HIST) | |
| C. Maines | ARHA 213 Monastic Utopias: Architecture and Monastic Life to the 13th Century | DeNeile Cooper (‘15, ANTH); Margaret Daly (‘15, ANTH) | |
| R. Ficek | CHUM 309 Road Trip! Mobility and Encounter in the Americas | Talia DeRogatis (‘15, AMST, ENVS) | |
| J. Torgerson | COL 128 Re-imagining East and West: Constantinople between Rome and Istanbul | Marjahn Finlayson (‘15, E&ES) | |
| G. Shaw | HIST 201 Medieval Europe | Abby Shneyder (‘17 HIST, ITAL) | |
| M. Kingsley | Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship | Sadasia McCutchen (‘17, CSS) | |
| QAC Tutor with GIS proficiency | Mads O’Brien (‘16, E&ES, SISP) |