Rodrick Steven Schubert, rod, is in the Master of Humanities program at the University of Colorado Denver, currently finishing his thesis. It examines the concept of Imperium Romanum as a managerial philosophy for large areal control which begins in a cosmopolitan worldview. Besides finishing up his thesis, Schubert is supplementing the initial certificate-required studies with additional GIS and digital content delivery course work. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Metropolitan State University of Denver and is one-half of a parenting team that helped three young folks along as they found their way toward adulthood in our shared world. Anthony, Anna, and Michael are his truest joy.
Rod's interest and excellence lie particularly in literature, history, and design. In 2016, he and Professor Omar Swartz, Ph.D., J.D. gave an award-winning presentation, titled "Tradition and Transformation in Jane Addams’ New Federalism: Creating Community Sphere by Empowering Municipalities." This presentation, in 2019, was published as a book chapter in Activism and Rhetoric: Theories and Contexts for Political Engagement, edited by Jong Hwa and Seth Kahn, published by Routledge. Rod's philosophy is that learning comes about when we collaborate in the process of discovering the world around us, digital or otherwise, as a community of learners.
Integrating the Old with New: Giving New Life to Historical Maps Using Geographic Information Systems 
Whether one is an historian, geographer, visual-culture specialist, social scientist, or other Humanistic discipline practitioner, maps are typically viewed as data-rich primary source artifacts. As an artifact, each map can provide a bounty of information which spatially contextualizes its content and how those extant during the map’s creation thought of their space. My interest for re-acquiring and then re-deploying through re-drafting historical maps is due to the rich data set they possess and how that data set is presented. Through faithful historical map re-creation one can harness the information processing power accessible through Geographical Information Systems’ Science. Doing this allows each map artifact a venue to become a living document. My developmental example is a map by Abraham Bradley, Junior (1767–1838), which carries the following title Map of the United States Exhibiting the Post-Road, the situation, connections, and the distances of the Post-Offices; Stage Roads, Counties, Ports of Entry, and Delivery for Foreign Vessels, and the Principal Rivers. These are links to the first two pamphlets concerning this on-going investigation and a slide-presentation for the first pamphlet, past cartographic practices: enquiry.
- Click here to download and view a report of the exploration of this project
- Click here to download and view a report of the projection aspect of this project
- Click here to download and view the report in a powerpoint presentation
- Click here to download and view the written report
Atlas Proposal for Teaching Critical Political Geography through Historical Cartography
During Summer 1787 as the current Constitution of the United States was being drafted, one underlying concern expressed in the Federal Convention Records is the people governing themselves given the large areal extents. How could people know the candidates for Chief Magistrate, the President, well enough to make an informed selection considering the travel distances and time traveling took. In this proposal which only reviews the limited roads and low population density of two original states, the concept of directly elected representation does provide a solution for a sound democratic process when no mass communication or rapid transit exists. United States Federal governance is also a spatial solution for large areal governance management.
Click here to view the proposal
Representation: A Solution for Democratic Governance over Large Areal Extents
To create an integrated learning environment this poster has an aspect ratio that will work either in a virtual classroom setting or physically printed out for use in a traditional educational venue. This poster is one from what will be a five-module set with individual accompanying poster for each that examines the social-spatial-political development of the current United States. This example module’s poster examines Federal governance process origins. Each module will have a poster, an accompanying brochure for reference to primary sources and thought world summary, and finally developing an integrated set of GIS model modules to encourage collaborative student enquiry either virtually or in a physical classroom.
Click here to view the entire poster
alpha travels the wine dark sea: a contemplative meditation on alpha’s travels to the aegean sea and beyond
This piece examines an idea of cartography which starts with a fanciful physical base map and then embarks on a journey. Its narrative is voice is that of alpha as she speaks of traveling the Aegean Sea. Its concept is to unleash one’s mental map through the memorializing power of images, character sets, and the composed tale. Through the evocative power of storytelling, one’s mind maps their vision of the Wine Dark Sea; one no ancient mariner could have known but all have seen within each epic tale.
Click here for the whole story
Democracy, Representation, Citizen Sovereigns, and Governance:
Confluence on the Eastern Seaboard
Through this link one can examine the first brochure. It combines with the poster concerning Representation to form the first pair of course materials for the five-units. In this brochure choropleth, dot density, ring density buffer, and regional topographic maps with a re-rendered Bradley Postal Roads map are employed to create its physical cartographic palette. Each page is intended to lead the student on an extended enquiry that culminates in their mapping the story.
Digital Elevation Models and Bathymetrics
These images were created from ninety-degree-by-ninety-degree DEM models created for the International Hydrographic Organization and provide
d through their website. The site is called General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans or typically using its acronym GEBCO. In the examples that were created as test images these DEM data models have data covering the whole geodetic spectrum from the deepest depth to the highest above sea level height. One part of this test was to come up with to use the color ramp model editor in ArcGIS Pro to place blue hues into the ocean depths and the typical red, greens, and whites for the above sea level areas. This as with many projects is a progressing, ongoing work.
Click here to view the project
Esri Short Course Certificates
Courses completed:
