Alternative Computation and Unconventional Spaces Monica Stephens, Humboldt State University Josef Eckert, University of Washington Newly emergent features of the computational turn (e.g., Berry 2011) posit new challenges for geographers practicing computer-mediated research. While geographers maintain a strong relationship with geographic information systems, new technologies, hardware, and practices suggest exciting new avenues for computational research. Geographic “big data” demand new, computationally intensive approaches to geospatial analysis. Textual artifacts from social media sources augment traditional geospatial inquiry, but also serve as data for non-GIS computational work such as natural language processing, topic modeling, or social media analysis. These provocative treatments suggest ways in which information can be geographic, yet not necessarily require explicit Cartesian expression. Results of such analyses have determined uneven distributions of data, and limits to the representational abilities of GIS. We’re excited to push beyond traditional GIS techniques to explore other ways in which our digital beings are expressed through space and place. This session welcomes both empirical and theoretical work that advances computer-mediated research in novel ways. We welcome papers on the following topics (or any closely related): 1) Digital humanities-inspired inquiry for Geography 2) Alternative methodologies for the digitally underrepresented 3) Novel geospatial and other computer-mediated approaches to “big data” analyses 4) Non-Cartesian geographic information and its analyses 5) Computer-mediated research located in underrepresented spaces (rural areas, impoverished places, etc.) 6) Geographic natural language processing, topic modeling, or other textual analysis 7) Relational spaces of Social Network Analysis Please send related abstracts to Joe Eckert (jeckert1@uw.edu) and Monica Stephens (monica.stephens@humboldt.edu) no later than October 31, 2013. Best, Monica Stephens & Joe Eckert