The CRC established the Centre of Understanding Semi-Peripheries (CUSP) to mobilize all of the international and national scholars, partners, and students associated with Dr. Greer’s research projects, and to showcase the trajectories emerging from the research. As part of CUSP, a Portal Site using ESRI’s Story Maps and HGIS prototypes was created to showcase the partnerships, outreach, and training of students. See: https://cusp.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=6475de8ff85a4c7b9a2b4be500d99605.

In order to reach a broad audience, several HGIS prototypes were created to bring together geospatial data with historical narrative using ESRI’s Story Maps. The CUSP portal was designed specifically to showcase the various interdisciplinary projects that emerged from the CRC.  This site heavily employs geographic information systems (GIS) for the storage and analysis of large volumes of spatial data relating to its research projects. Additionally, web-based GIS is used as a primary tool to showcase CUSP’s interdisciplinary research projects and visualize the linkages between disciplines and projects. GIS software regularly employed by CUSP includes ArcGIS version 10.4, and ArcGIS Online Story Map and Web App Building Applications.  The HGIS prototypes are tangible examples of knowledge sharing outside of the academic world on how to do interdisciplinary work across the humanities and geophysical sciences in an online, interactive way.