معرفی
Don Lafreniere is an Associate Professor of Geography and GIS and serves as Department Chair in the Industrial Heritage and Archaeology Program at Michigan Technological University. His research focuses on developing public-participatory GIS methodologies to recreate historical industrial environments and analyze spatial population patterns.
Lafreniere's research explores 19th-century social mobility, urban segregation, industrial worker migration, industrial heritage preservation, and daily life in industrial cities. His recent work involves creating historical spatial data infrastructures to examine relationships between built environments, social conditions, and health outcomes across the life course.
He leads the Keweenaw Time Traveler Project, a major initiative mapping people and places in Michigan's historic copper mining region from 1880-1950. This project supports heritage preservation, interpretation, and educational outreach through participatory historical GIS.
