Using Maps to
Understand Human Stories.
I'm Dr James Williams, a researcher who believes that the best routes aren't always the fastest—sometimes they're the most beautiful, the safest, or the most meaningful. I build AI systems that capture what traditional maps miss: how places actually feel.
What I Do
Combining cutting-edge technology with human-centred design to reimagine how we interact with geographic space.
Geo-Narratives
Developing methods to capture the stories people tell about places—not just coordinates, but memories, emotions, and lived experiences.
Spatial AI
Building machine learning models that understand uncertainty, vagueness, and the fuzzy boundaries of real-world places.
Interactive Systems
Creating tangible interfaces—like projection-augmented relief models—that let communities explore and shape their environments.
Recent Projects
Research that pushes the boundaries of human-map interaction.
PlaceCrafter
A web-based geospatial framework for identifying and visualizing 'platial' functional regions by clustering OpenStreetMap Points of Interest.
PARM-X
An Interactive Projection Augmented Relief Model Web Platform for visualizing and interacting with geospatial data over physical relief models.
WalkGIS
A Contextual GIS framework for capturing and analyzing the subjective 'Sense of Place' in leisure walks by linking video narratives with geospatial data.
Current Role
Bringing together narrative approaches and GIScience to understand how experiences of slavery and war are situated, remembered, and represented.
Research Fellow in Slavery and War
Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War & Rights Lab
University of Nottingham
Extending my work on space, place, and lived experience—using narrative approaches and GIScience to better understand how experiences of slavery and war are situated, remembered, and represented.
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