Cartographies of Massacres: Visual and Spatial Methods in Human Rights Research - Incite at Columbia University

This project examines counter-forensic works addressing how communities process generational trauma, and which combine human rights research with innovative visual and spatial methods. Examining approaches to massacres in Israel/Palestine between 1947 and 1949, the study looks beyond written testimony to research that maps the physical and environmental traces of violence that remain in landscapes today.

By overlaying archival maps, aerial photos, and contemporary satellite imagery, such research therefore reveals how trauma is embedded in terrain, structures, and memory. This interdisciplinary approach—blending history, cartography, digital modeling, and survivor testimony—creates a powerful framework for both evidence-gathering and community healing.

The project’s outputs will include a scholarly publication on the use of visual and spatial methods in documenting historical crimes as well as a video study examining the 'treachery of images' in the contemporary context in Israel/Palestine. By bringing in research that bridges spatial evidence and lived experience, the research offers new tools for recognition, accountability, and reconciliation, with broader implications for how counter-forensic and human rights research addresses historical trauma.