Sterling Quinn

Ph.D Penn State University
Interests and expertise: Critical cartography, narrative cartography, politics of online maps, crowdsourced mapping, free and open source GIS, Latin America.

Dr. Sterling Quinn teaches a variety of geography courses at CWU on GIS, Latin America, and world issues.

His research analyzes the social forces that influence the content of online maps including Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, and similar products. He is also interested in using historical diaries to create narrative maps that show journeys, social networks, emotions, and routines. These projects draw upon feminist thought in geography and cartography to explore how maps can show aspects of identity formation and the stories of those who are overlooked or absent in dominant narratives.

Dr. Quinn is an active participant in the Latino and Latin American Studies program at CWU. His travels and research have taken him to Argentina, Brazil, and other countries, but have also touched local themes such as the inclusion of Latino-oriented businesses in online maps of the Northwestern US.

Dr. Quinn serves on various thesis committees and is welcoming graduate students in the Cultural and Environmental Resource Management master’s program who would like to apply GIS methods toward addressing resource management issues.

Prior to his full-time academic career, Dr. Quinn worked as a GIS software product engineer at Esri, specializing in web mapping technologies.

Dr. Quinn holds a PhD in geography from Penn State University (2016), an MGIS from Penn State (2009), and a BS in GIS from Brigham Young University (2005). His full CV and list of publications are visible at www.sterlingquinn.net.

Selected courses taught:

GEOG 411: GIS Programming

GEOG 404: GIS Analysis

GEOG 370: Geography of South America

LLAS 301: Urban Society in Latin America

GEOG 101: World Regional Geography

Selected publications (with links to full articles):

Quinn, S. (2024). Using GIS to Visualize Daily Routines at the Neighborhood and Household Scales: A Feminist Approach Using a Nineteenth-Century Diary. The Journal of Feminist Scholarship, 25.

Quinn, S., & Condon, D. (2022). Inclusion of Latino-oriented local businesses in popular online maps: An empirical study in the Inland Northwest of the United States. The Journal of Community Informatics, 18(2), 84-114.

Quinn, S. (2020). Geographies of Empty Spaces on Print and Digital Reference Maps: A Study of Washington State. Cartographic Perspectives, (95), 24-21.

Quinn, S. (2019). Free and open source GIS in South America: political inroads and local advocacy. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 34(3), 464-483.

Quinn, S., & Bull, F. (2019). Understanding Threats to Crowdsourced Geographic Data Quality Through a Study of OpenStreetMap Contributor Bans. In N. Valcik (Ed.), Geospatial Information System Use in Public Organizations: How and Why GIS Should Be Used by the Public Sector. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL

Quinn, S., & Alvarez León, L. (2019). Every single street? Rethinking full coverage across street‐level imagery platforms. Transactions in GIS, 23(6), 1251-1272.

Quinn, S. and Tucker, D. (2017). How geopolitical conflict shapes the mass-produced online map. First Monday, 22(11).

Quinn, S. (2017). Using small cities to understand the crowd behind OpenStreetMap, GeoJournal, 82(3), 455-473.