Sara Lafia is a graduate student in the Geography Department at UCSB. She works in partnership with the UCSB Library and the Center for Spatial Studies on improving the spatial discovery of research data and documents. Her research addresses the question of how to spatially enable discovery of connected data and publications in a setting that allows for mapping and analysis using a Geographic Information System. She is also interested in the application of spatialization frameworks to non-spatial data, such as text, to gain new insights about themes of contents across data formats. Her background is in Urban and Regional Planning. She has experience working on projects in collaboration with the U.S. EPA Region 10, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, applying GIS to assess social issues while also improving the accessibility of spatial tools for civic and community use.

Sara will be working with Professor Michael Curtin in the area of Media and Globalization. 

Fellowship term: Summer 2019