Alumni News: Benjamin Shown

Benjamin Shown (MFA 2010) created a website based on his thesis “Mighty Maps.” He presented part of a workshop for K-12 teachers and librarians at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association using some of his thesis content. In this joint presentation (with Anastasia Shown, Assistant Director of African Studies at University of Pennsylvania), he described why maps are an ideal medium to promote a social cause and how maps can help students create an effective mental model for understanding and exploring the world around them. Specifically, he described and presented “Mighty Maps” as a design tool that can help students leverage the power of maps in tangible and relevant ways to benefit social good efforts. He also provided educational map resources on his website for everyone’s use after the conference. Shown plans to present at another workshop as part of the 2011 Annual Conference of the National Council for the Social Studies.