Past Conferences

Each year, the CGA hosts a two-day conference on a GIS topic useful to the Harvard community. These events involve keynote speakers, numerous panel discussions, and workshops. Posters, videos and other visualizations submitted by attendees and Harvard students are featured, and plenty of time is scheduled for networking and socializing among conference attendees. 

The theme for our 2026 conference is Celebrating Geographic Analysis: Past, Present, and Future. Read all of the details on the 2026 conference page.

2025 CGA Conference: The Geography of Digital Twins & The 2025 Symposium on Spatiotemporal Data Science
May. 22 - May 24, 2025
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12:00AM - 12:00AM EDT
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Harvard University, CGIS South 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA 02138
In Person
The concept of a digital twin—creating an authentic virtual counterpart to a physical entity—has deep roots in human history, across cultures. From ancient analogues like architectural models, astronomical devices, table top battle replicas, and even...

2024 CGA Conference: Evaluating the Science of Geospatial AI
May. 16 - May 17, 2024
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1:00PM - 5:00PM EDT
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CGIS South Building, Concourse level, Tsai Auditorium & Belfer Case Study Room, 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge MA 02138
In Person
May 16th 1-5pm & May 17th 9am-5pm Conference Program with Speakers Bio and Abstracts (designed and edited by Lingbo Liu, last updated on 5/15/2024) Conference Program with hyperlinks to Zoom Recording and Slides (edited by Yogya Kalra, last updated on 7/5...

2023 CGA Conference: From Geospatial Research to Health Solutions
Mar. 20 - Mar 21, 2023
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8:30AM - 5:10PM EDT
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CGIS South S030 (Doris and Ted Lee Gathering Room), 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA 02138
In Person
Conference Program with embedded links to slides, videos, posters and photos (updated on April 21, 2023) Conference Program with speakers bio, photo and abstracts (updated on March 19, 2023) Questions on the health of an individual, the health of an...

2022 CGA Virtual Forum: The Uneven Geography of Climate Change
May 20, 2022
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10:30AM - 12:30PM EDT
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Online via Zoom
Virtual
While a changing climate impacts everyone’s ability to feed and support themselves, these impacts are not experienced equally. The uneven geography of climate change is revealed as grassroots movements and industrialized nations around the world take...

2021 CGA Virtual Forum: Geographic Data Science and Public Policy
June 30, 2021
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10:30AM - 12:30PM EDT
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Online
Virtual
In the wake of much public data science and public data visualization (as related to covid-19, elections, police violence, evictions, etc.), how is geographic knowledge translated to various publics? What are the important GIScience principles that get...

Cities' COVID Mitigation and Mapping (C2M2) Symposium
Jun. 22 - Jun 25, 2021
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8:30AM - 11:30AM EDT
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Online
Virtual
Background In late 2019, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and resulting illness, COVID-19, in Wuhan, China rapidly expanded across the globe resulting in the declaration of a global pandemic by WHO in early 2020. A highly contagious...

2020 CGA Conference: From Geospatial Research to Health Solutions
Apr. 30 - May 1, 2020
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12:30PM - 6:00PM EDT
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CGIS South, Belfer Case Study Room (Thursday afternoon) and Tsai Auditorium (Friday all-day)
In Person
Last update (7/30/2020): As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves rapidly around the globe, many of our invited speakers are playing a key role at the forefront in combatting the disease. The organizing committee and sponsors recently reevaluated the situation...

Future of Geography Conference
Oct. 3 - Oct 4, 2019
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8:30AM - 5:00PM EDT
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CGIS Knafel, 1737 Cambridge St. Room K450
In Person
As Geography Departments are dramatically disappearing from universities across the US and geographic knowledge is diffusing itself and taking on new forms, this conference identifies a set of urgent questions pertaining to the future of geography: Where...

Geographic Perspectives on Infectious Diseases in Humans, Animals, and the Environment
June 18, 2019
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9:00AM - 5:00PM EDT
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CGIS South Tsai Auditorium, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
In Person
Please join the World-Wide Human Geography Data (WWHGD) Working Group and the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University for our "Geographic Perspectives on Infectious Diseases in Humans, Animals, and the Environment" Symposium at Harvard...

Dynamic Mapping of Secondary Cities Symposium II
June 17, 2019
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8:30AM - 5:00PM EDT
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CGIS South S020, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA 02138
In Person
Solutions to today’s rapidly growing urban challenges require innovative thinking and accumulative efforts from the most forward-thinking problem solvers. We are excited to announce the official date, Monday, June 17, 2019, for our second symposium at...

2019 CGA Conference: The Geography of Redistricting
May 3, 2019
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12:00PM - 6:00PM EDT
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CGIS South, Belfer Case Study Room (May 2, afternoon) and Tsai Auditorium (May 3, all-day)
In Person
Conference Program Slides and Videos (updated 7/5/2019) American partisan politics have reached a fever pitch, amid renewed and urgent questions on the various threats to democracy. Conversations have intensified on the topic of political redistricting...

2018 CGA Conference: Illuminating Space and Time in Data Science
Apr. 26 - Apr 27, 2018
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12:00AM - 12:00AM EDT
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CGIS South, Tsai Auditorium
In Person
AUDIO recordings of the Conference are linked below. The rapid proliferation of ‘smart’ objects have enabled a variety of sensors operating a wide range of scales -- from the body to the planet -- resulting in unprecedented volumes of digital data. The...
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