Teaching with StoryMaps: A Countermapping Project on Women and Revolution in the Middle East
Digital storytelling is transforming how students engage with research, place, and narrative. In the Map & Data Library (MDL), we are increasingly supporting course projects that move beyond traditional essays and inviting students to tell complex, spatially grounded stories using interactive tools. One powerful example comes from WGS340: Women and Revolution in the Middle East, taught by Esra Kazanbas.
Project Spotlight: Countermapping Stories of Resistance
In this course, students are asked to create countermaps, digital storytelling projects that challenge dominant narratives and surface overlooked geographies of resistance.This assignment approaches countermapping as a palimpsestic practice: layered, partial, and evolving. Rather than presenting resistance as a single, cohesive story, students explore how it appears through fragments as sonic traces, infrastructures, everyday practices, and lived experiences shaped by colonial legacies and political struggle.
Students are encouraged to move beyond conventional definitions of resistance and question simplistic binaries often found in mainstream or Orientalist narratives. The result is a collection of deeply thoughtful, spatially grounded stories that reflect the complexity of the Middle East and North Africa. Just as importantly, the assignment builds digital humanities skills alongside academic research practices. Students collaborate, interpret diverse sources, and learn to communicate their findings through interactive, map-based storytelling.
Check these student stories in a StoryMap Collection*: WGS340: Women and Revolution in the Middle East (login to the UofT ArcGIS Online portal is required).
What is Digital Storytelling?
Digital storytelling combines narrative with multimedia elements such as maps, images, audio, and video. In an academic setting, it allows students to:
• Situate stories in geographic space
• Layer multiple forms of evidence and media
• Engage audiences through interactive exploration
• Present complex ideas in accessible, compelling formats
This approach is especially valuable in disciplines that deal with place, identity, and power, where spatial context can deepen understanding.
What are StoryMaps?
Many MDL-supported projects use ArcGIS StoryMaps, a web-based tool developed by Esri. StoryMaps allows users to combine interactive maps, narrative text, images, video and embedded multimedia into a seamless, scrollable story.
For students, StoryMaps offers an intuitive interface that requires no coding skills, while still enabling sophisticated storytelling. For instructors, it provides a flexible platform adaptable to a wide range of assignments from research projects to reflective narratives.
For an ArcGIS StoryMaps overview and demonstration, please check our latest workshop recording and slides!
How MDL Supports Digital Storytelling in Teaching
The Map & Data Library works closely with instructors to integrate tools like StoryMaps into their curriculum. Our support can be tailored to different course needs and experience levels.
Instructional Support
• In-class workshops introducing StoryMaps and digital storytelling principles
• Guidance on assignment design and scaffolding
• Sharing best practices for evaluating digital projects
Research & Data Support
• Help sourcing spatial data, historical maps, and multimedia content
• Advice on ethical data use and representation
Technical Assistance
• One-on-one or group consultations for students
• Troubleshooting and project feedback
Bringing Digital Storytelling into Your Course
Assignments like Countermapping Stories of Resistance demonstrate how digital storytelling can deepen student engagement and critical thinking. By working with tools like StoryMaps, students don’t just write about space, they map it, question it, and reinterpret it.
If you’re interested in incorporating digital storytelling into your teaching, MDL team is here to help you! Contact the Map & Data Library to get started or to explore how digital storytelling can fit into your course.
*Note: These StoryMaps were created in WGS340: Women and Revolution in the Middle East (Winter 2026). The University of Toronto Libraries has received permission from the creators of these StoryMaps to share them on this site. If you are concerned that you have found material within this collection that you believe should be removed, please contact us, and we will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible.