Anthropologist and Urban Ethnographer
Advancement of Methodology
Dr. Priyadarshini is dedicated to bridging GIS-based spatial mapping with ethnographic inquiry to illuminate how individuals and communities experience, interpret, and inhabit space. By combining technical analysis with lived narratives, her work highlights the social, cultural, and affective dimensions of spatial life, offering insights that connect data-driven mapping with the complexities of human meaning-making.
Participatory Mapping & Story Mapping
Local residents collaboratively create maps of their neighborhoods that capture lived experiences—such as safety zones, food desert, and sacred spaces. These maps weave together narratives, photographs, and geospatial data to situate personal and collective stories within place.
Transect Walks & Mobile Ethnography
Together with participants, we walk through neighborhoods to discuss spatial features and infrastructures. As they move through these everyday spaces, participants record routes, feelings, and events on their mobile devices.
Spatial Data Integration with Ethnography
We integrate oral histories, archival photographs, and video with GIS layers, while using ArcGIS Survey123 to collect real-time geocoded ethnographic data such as narratives, photographs, and voice notes.
Architectural Analysis
Through architectural analysis, we examine the ‘perceptibility’ of urban spaces—focusing on their visibility, audibility, and massiveness—as well as the ‘centrality’ of structures within the built environment, to understand how design shapes social experience and spatial meaning.
