I’m interested in all things related to maps (especially, critical cartographies, geovisualization, and Indigenous cartographic history, map design, and cartographic language), and historical & cultural geography (especially, Indigenous geographies, historical landscapes of North America, Native and non-Native interactions, toponymy, and the themes of memory, experience, imagination, and narrative). My approach to both cartography and geography is grounded in design and the humanities.

My work is to develop innovative cartographic language for the representation of experience, place, and Indigenous knowledge. As part of this work, I am currently involved in two projects: the cartographic symbolization of Wabanaki toponymic landscapes (in Maine), and the representation of local and outside knowledge of climate change in shared cartographic dialogue (in Tanzania).

GEOG 102 Principles of human geography

GEOG 210 Maps, Computers, & Geographic Analysis

GEOG / INS 601/801 Indigenous Peoples of the World

GEOG 911 Mapping place

Third Place, Best Thematic Map, CaGIS Map Design Competition, 2008.

Honorable mention, Best Thematic Map, CaGIS Map Design Competition, 2006.

M. Pearce and O. Dwyer. Exploring Human Geography with Maps. 2nd ed. N.Y.: W. H. Freeman, 2010.

They would not take me there: People, places, and stories from Champlain’s travels in Canada, 1603-1616. Orono, Me.: Canadian American Center, University of Maine, 2008.

The intricacy of these turns and windings: A voyageur’s map. Marshall, Mich.: Journey Cake, 2005.

M. Pearce and M. Hermann. Mapping Champlain’s travels: Restorative techniques for historical cartography. Cartographica 45 no. 1 (March 2010):33-48.

M. Pearce. Non-western mapping. In R. Kitchin and N. Thrift, eds. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Elsevier 2009.

M. Pearce and R. Louis. Mapping Indigenous depth of place. American Indian Culture & Research Journal, Special Issue, “Mainstreaming Indigenous Geographies,” 32 no. 3 (2008), 107-26.

M. Pearce. Framing the days: Place and narrative in cartography. Cartography and Geographic Information Science 35 no. 1 (January 2008):17-32.

M. Pearce. Reservation surveys in Lower Michigan. In David Macleod, ed. Mapping in Michigan and the Great Lakes Region. E. Lansing, Mich.: Michigan State University Press, 2007, 145-172.

M. Pearce. Exploring Human Geography with Maps. N.Y.: W. H. Freeman, 2003.

M. Pearce. The holes in the grid: reservation surveys in Lower Michigan. Michigan Historical Review 30 no. 2 (Fall 2004), 135–66.

M. Pearce. Encroachment by word, axis, and tree: mapping techniques from the colonization of New England. Cartographic Perspectives 48 (Spring 2004), 24–38.

M. Pearce. Native mapping in Southern New England Indian deeds. In G. M. Lewis, ed. Cartographic Encounters: Perspectives on Native American Mapmaking and Map Use. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998, 157–86.