Will Payne

Will Payne is an Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Science at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University, since 2020. He holds a Ph.D. in Geography from UC Berkeley and an A.B. from Harvard College. His research explores geospatial technologies’ role in urban inequality, focusing on location-based services (LBS) and their impact on racialized and class-based segregation in cities. He examines how platforms like Yelp, Google Maps, and Nextdoor shape urban consumption patterns and gentrification dynamics while critiquing their role in transforming neighborhoods.

Research interests include digital geographies, spatial data science, platform urbanism, and feminist GIS. He teaches graduate and undergraduate GIS courses for planning and public policy, emphasizing command-line tools and spatial analysis. Payne develops open-source tools for spatial visualization and computational research, such as the Relational Reprojection Platform for non-linear distance transformations in R.

Key publications analyze gourmet gentrification in NYC, micromobility infrastructure in Austin, and the political economy of online review systems. His work bridges urban theory, digital methodologies, and critical spatial practices, addressing how geospatial data shapes urban equity and power dynamics.