From the Cleveland Stater newspaper, 2007:

Map Walk enlightens campus

By Jennifer Brainard

Stretching nearly 80 feet wide and 35 feet long, the pilot maps at the recent Middle East Map Walk covered roughly one quarter of Woodling Gym.

“With all the maps out, people get a sense of the relative sizes of the regions,” said Stephen Cory, assistant professor in the Department of History, who sponsored the Map Walk.

Covering the Middle East, parts of Asia, the Balkans, the Mediterranean region and the northern half of Africa, the maps gave a sense of the landscape and its borders according to the structure of countries.

“I saw it at a Middle East studies conference,” said Cory, who was then inspired to host his own Map Walk at CSU.

The Map Walk, which was held on Sept. 21, had a better turn-out then last year’s. Cory estimated about 150 students, faculty and community members, with shoes in hand, walked or crawled their way across vast areas of the Islamic world.

Last February, the event was held in the University Center. This time Cory was able to reserve Woodling Gym, which had more advantages. There was more space, and Woodling Gym provided a bird’s-eye-view from the upstairs track.

“Due to delays in the initial arrival of the charts, advertising before the event was limited,” Cory said.

For this Map Walk, Cory publicized it in local newspapers. “There were more community people this time,” Cory said.

After two Map Walks, Cory plans to expand the map collection and host at least one map walk annually.

Reach this Stater reporter at
j.brainard@csuohio.edu