Bio

Lieselot Lapon started her PhD-research in 2015. Her research focuses on how accurate our mental map is.

To project a round world on a flat map is a challenge. Throughout history many cartographers developed formulas and projections to solve this problem. However, a map without distortions doesnít exist. How to reach an objective view? There are countless discussions on which map projection to use in our education systems, online and on the (social) media. Even today some controversial projections are still very much in use, such as the Mercator projection (Google Maps), that was meant for navigation purposes and can be considered to be a Eurocentric projection as it enlarges the areas towards the poles (such as Europe and North America).

Do these distortions and map projections have an influence on our worldview and on our mental maps: the representation of the world that we have in our mind?

Feel free to check your view of the world by testing your knowledge on www.maps.ugent.be. Thank you for participating in this research.

Before starting her PhD research, Lieselot has been working as a scientific employee. In 2011 she started working at the department by designing school atlases. Afterwards she developed educational materials for courses geography at secondary schools (GeoMobiel) and she did research about the usability of satellite images to detect climate change effects in the Caribbean.

Publications

Bibliography UGent library