The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and the Byzantine Studies Association of North America are pleased to offer a GIS visibility analysis workshop for graduate students and early career researchers in collaboration with Becky Seifried of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
GIS Tools for Byzantinists: Visibility Analysis, workshop by Becky Seifried (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Zoom, December 11, 2026, 12:00 AM–2:00 PM EST (UTC -5)
Visibility analysis is a common geospatial technique for investigating the visual interconnections across past landscapes, as well as for exploring questions about why people existed where they did. This intermediate-level workshop will introduce a group of visibility analysis tools available in QGIS, a free and open-source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) desktop software. It will begin with a quick review of core concepts, including vector and raster data types, coordinate reference systems, and how to find and create data. Using a dataset we create together, we will then use QGIS to experiment with line-of-sight, viewshed, and cumulative viewshed tools. Participants will come away ready to apply visibility analysis to their own case studies.
Registration closes November 19.
For a full description of the workshop and to register your interest, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/visibility-analysis.
Contact Brandie Ratliff, Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions.
