Pick up your box lunch and come to the Atrium Lounge!
As the 2026 midterm elections approach, gerrymandering has once again entered public and scholarly debate. For GIScience (GISc), political geography, and spatial justice research, gerrymandering has never been simply a technical question of how to draw district lines. It is about how spatial boundaries intentionally shape political representation, community (non)visibility, public resource allocation, and the ways people are governed and made visible. GISc has transformed redistricting, where GISc is a “double-edged sword” for gerrymandering. GISc can be used to create highly targeted gerrymanders, but it can also be used to detect and challenge them. Moreover, in the age of AI Everywhere, this long-standing issue is becoming even more complex: AI may not only change how redistricting and boundary manipulation are carried out but also reshape the spatial logic of political governance itself.
This discussion will begin with the impact of GISc and AI on gerrymandering and redistricting. In recent years, machine learning, nonparametric statistical learning, and algorithm-assisted redistricting have been used to generate and evaluate alternative districting plans, helping identify anomalous bias, explain district structures, and improve transparency in redistricting analysis (Stolicki et al., 2024). At the same time, we need to ask: Could AI also be used to create more refined and less visible forms of boundary manipulation? If district boundaries have already distorted community representation and public data, might AI-mediated governance further amplify these distortions? In the age of AI Everywhere, is gerrymandering expanding from a manipulation of electoral boundaries into a spatial infrastructure problem that shapes data, representation, public resources, and algorithmic governance? And how might we use GeoAI not only to detect manipulation, but also to advance spatial justice, democratic representation, and responsible AI governance?
We are seeing changes in the NSF and NIH (etc.) funding landscape. This has and may continue to result in job cuts, terminations of grants, loss of overhead, and dissolution of programs. GIScientists may benefit from an open discussion about the current research climate.
This is a very informal sharing and listening session on reactions to and strategies for managing the changes in federal funding allocation (both toward and away different priorities) and is open to all. Participants can get new ideas for research support, new knowledge about how institutions are coping, and clarity about proposed legislation and effects.
There is no one speaker or representative from any agency leading or joining the discussion, and we will depend on those who come to the session to share their experiences.
Potential topics of discussion: -How NSF-HEGS (formerly GSS) and related programs that sponsor GIScience research have helped us. -Experiences with NSF funding for GIScientists through a variety of programs. -How academic departments and administrations are managing funding changes. -Ideas for a future webinar or other future directions to continue the conversation. -Other topics of interest.
