Research Clusters

Dr. Priyadarshini leads two interdisciplinary research clusters at Southern Methodist University—GIS@SMU and Social Lives of Infrastructure. Together, these initiatives bring faculty, postdoctoral scholars, students, and communities into collaborative dialogue around the intersections of space, people, and technology. Both clusters share a central question: how do people engage with and experience space, and how do infrastructures and mappings mediate those engagements?

Social Lives of Infrastructure

This research addresses the urgent need to examine the fragility of neighborhood infrastructure—small, distributed systems vital to urban livelihoods, safety, and wellbeing. Using interdisciplinary methods such as transect walks, interviews, participatory mapping, and GIS analysis (i.e., ArcGIS Survey123), we investigate how infrastructures like roads, transit, green spaces, food stores, and healthcare facilities shape people’s wellbeing, daily decisions and survival strategies.

GIS@SMU

The cluster emphasizes critical and interpretive approaches to GIS, focusing on human experience, subjectivity, and ethical engagement. Through participatory data collection and community-engaged projects, we seek to build technical mapping skills while deepening understanding of how individuals and communities perceive and interpret spatial representations of their worlds.