Newcastle University

Education 

2002-2009: Ph.D., Geography, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
1998-2002: B.S., Natural Resources and Environmental Ecology, Peking University 

Previous Positions

2009-2012: Assistant Professor, Geography and Earth Science Department, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse 

Roles and Responsibilities

2012-         Library liaison for Geography in GPS
2011-13     Board member of AAG Urban Geography Specialty Group
2012-13     Member of Program Committee (Research Track) for WikiSym 2013
2011-12     Member of Program Committee for AutoCarto 2012
2011-12     Reviewer for Sage book proposals
2012-13     Reviewer for GeoJournal, Cartography and Geographic Information Science, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies
2011          Reviewer for Environment and Behavior, Urban Affairs Review, GeoJournal
2010          Reviewer for Landscape and Urban Planning, GeoJournal, Journal of Applied Geography
2008          Reviewer for Eurasian Geography and Economics, Built Environment

Memberships

Association of American Geographers
Cartography and Geographic Information Society
Fellow of Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers 

Research Interests

My research and teaching interests include geographic information science (GIS) and urban geography. My research agenda centres on the intersection between the development and usage of geospatial technologies and the social and political conditions in which these practices are situated. I utilize combined frameworks from critical GIS research and urban/political geography to investigate processes of geospatial technology constructions within a variety of urban contexts, and theorize their socio-political implications for citizen participation and urban governance. Meanwhile, I am interested in employing quantitative methods including GIS technologies to examine a wide range of social and environmental issues. I am also committed to facilitating strong relationships among community groups, local government agencies, and universities in my work, to foster community participation and development.

Current Work

My current research activities revolve around three related themes: 1) investigating the social and political implications of recent mapping practices combined with Web 2.0 technologies; 2) examining GIS-related practices in China’s urban planning agencies within the urbanization and globalization contexts; and 3) examining Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) practices in urban governance.

My most current research activities examine the implications of the emergence of volunteered geographic information (VGI) production, referring to the increasing engagement from amateurs in producing spatial knowledge facilitated by Web 2.0 technologies and mobile devices. I am working on a project examining how VGI practices in China might open new room for civic engagement. Within this project, I develop an expanded theorization of technology-mediated participation that draws upon PPGIS, critical GIS, and critical social theory. This project has resulted in a forthcoming book chapter for a volume edited by Daniel Sui (Ohio State University), Sarah Elwood (University of Washington), and Michael Goodchild (University of California-Santa Barbara) and a forthcoming paper for a special issue in Environment and Planning A organized by Matt Wilson (University of Kentucky) and Mark Graham (University of Oxford). I am currently preparing a manuscript regarding the interrelations between VGI and networked publics for a special issue in GeoJournal organized by Agnieszka Leszczynski (University of Washington) and Matt Wilson (University of Kentucky).

My VGI research builds on my prior work in investigating GIS usage in China’s urban planning agencies and PPGIS in US inner city neighbourhood planning, of which findings are presented in Transactions of GIS and Cartographica. Continuing the investigation of GIS usage in urban governance, I am revising a manuscript to be resubmitted to Urban Geography. This paper examines how technological and political rationalities mutually constitute one another through GIS developments in planning practices situated in China.

Building upon these above projects, I am interested in investigating geospatial technology usage and developments by various social groups situated in the UK context and working with local community groups through participatory mapping.

Funding

2012-2013: Faculty Research Fund, Newcastle University, £3,730, “Investigating Volunteered Geographic Information Production: A Comparative Study of the UK and China”

2010: Faculty/Staff Grant Development and Mentoring Program Fund (with Cynthia Berlin (Co-PI)), University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, $5,000, “Investigating Children’s Trips to School through Participatory Children’s GIS and Web-based Mapping”  

Undergraduate Teaching

GEO2043 Key Methods for Human Geographers (module leader)
GEO2110 Social Geographies (contributor)
GEO2111 Doing Geographical Research-Theory and Practice (tutor)
GEO3099 Dissertation (mentor)

Past Courses (taught at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)

GEO/ESC 385: Introduction to GIS
GEO 485/585: Advanced GIS
GEO 309: Urban Geography
GEO 200: Conservation of Global Environments
GEO 125: Introduction to Environmental Geography (online section)
GEO 230: Geography of Asia
GEO 215: Introduction to GIS
GEO 110: The World: Peoples and Regions

Postgraduate Teaching

• Lin W. Situating Performative Neogeography: Tracing, Mapping, and Performing “Everyone’s East Lake”. Environment and Planning A 2013, 45(1), 37-54.
• Lin W. When Web 2.0 meets public participation GIS: Volunteered geographic information and spaces of participatory mapping in China. In: Sui, D., Elwood, S., Goodchild, M, ed. Crowdsourcing Geographic Knowledge: Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) in Theory and Practice. London: Springer, 2012, pp.83-103.
• Lin W. Counter-cartographies. In: Cloke, P., Crang, P., Goodwin, M, ed. Introducing Human Geographies. London: Taylor and Francis, 2013. In Press.
• Lin W. Digitizing the Dragonhead, Geocoding the Urban Landscape: Investigating the Role of GIS in China’s Changing Urban Governance. Urban Geography 2011. Submitted.
• Lin W. Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In: Stoltman , J, ed. 21st Century Geography: A Reference Handbook. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2011, pp.677-686.
• Lin W, Ghose R. Social Constructions of GIS in China’s Changing Urban Governance: The Case of Shenzhen. Cartographica 2010, 45(2), 89-102.
• Lin W. Lu, D., 'Remaking Chinese Urban Form: Modernity, Scarcity and Space, 1949-2005', London: Routledge, 2006 [Book review]. Urban Geography 2008, 29(2), 187-188.
• Lin W, Ghose R. Complexities in Sustainable Provision of GIS for Urban Grassroots Organizations. Cartographica 2008, 43(1), 31-44.
• Lin W. GIS Development in China’s Urban Governance: A Case Study of Shenzhen. Transactions in GIS 2008, 12(4), 493-514.
• Lin W. Investigating GIS Constructions in Chinese Urban Government: A Case Study of Shenzhen. In: Geographic Information Science: 5th International Conference. 2008, Park City, Utah, USA.
• Huynh N, Lin W, Ness L R, Tran Xuan D, Occena-Gutierrez D. Climate Change and Its Impact on Cultural Shifts in East and Southeast Asia . In: James Norwine, ed. A World after Climate Change and Culture-Shift. Springer, 2012. Submitted.
• Lin W. Citizen Mapping. In: James Wright, ed. International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences 2nd Edition. Elsevier Limited, 2013. Submitted.
• Lin W. The hearing, the mapping, and the Web: Investigating emerging soundmapping practices. Landscape and Urban Planning 2013. Submitted.
• Lin W. VGI and Networked Publics? Politics of Everyday Mapping and Spatial Narratives . GeoJournal 2013. In Press.
• Lin W. Geography Speaks: Performative Aspects of Geography [book review]. Journal of Regional Science 2012, 52(5), 879-882.