Dillon Mahmoudi

Research Interests

Economic geography, critical GIS and counter-mapping, urban studies, labor markets, digital geography, youth & carceral geographies

Graduate Research and Undergraduate Research Opportunities

I am currently seeking Master’s and Doctoral students with training in heterodox/feminist economy geography to examine topics related to urban inequality, urban data/platforms, urban ecology, and global infrastructure. Ideal doctoral applicants should have research experience with qualitative research and historical materialism-based conceptual frameworks⁠ — training in GIS or technical expertise is a bonus.

Research Focus

My research focuses on the nexus of regional economies, urban spatial structure, and the relational processes of accumulation and exploitation under capitalism. Methodologically, I seek to combine advanced quantitative methods, critical GIS, and qualitative research.

Courses Taught

GES 330: Economic Geography
GES 383: Statistical and Thematic Cartography
GES 386/686: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
GES 486/687: Advanced Applications in Geographic Information Systems
GES 488/688: Spatial Data Analysis and GIS Applications
GES 700: Seminar in Geography – Logics of Capital: Witchcraft, Slavery, & Waged-Work
GES 700: Seminar in Geography – Valuing Nature: Power, Production, & the Environment

Selected Publications

See a complete list with full downloads on my website: http://dillonm.io

Uneven development and the anti-politics machine: Algorithmic violence and market-based neighborhood rankings. 2025. Political Geography 116 (January): 103247. With Dena Aufseeser and Alicia Sabatino. doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103247.

The urban-tech feedback loop: A surveillance and development data-walk in South Lake Union. 2024. Digital Geography & Society 7 (December): 100106. With Anthony Levenda and Alicia Sabatino. doi: 10.1016/j.diggeo.2024.100106.
* Featured on The Data Fix podcast w/ Dr. Mél Hogan
* Watch the meme summary

From FOSS to profit: Digital spatial technologies and the mode of production. 2024. Digital Geography and Society 7 (December): 100101. With Jim Thatcher, Laura Beltz Imaoka, and David O’Sullivan. doi:10.1016/j.diggeo.2024.100101.

Interrogating Narratives of Urban Change: Disinvestment and Development in Two Neighborhoods in Baltimore, MD. Urban Geography 46 (3): 589-611. With Dena Aufseeser. doi:10.1080/02723638.2024.2376907.

The Ground Rent Machine: The Story of Race, Housing Inequality, and Dispossession in Baltimore, Maryland. 2024. Annals of the American Association of Geographers (114) 7: 1505-1525. With Jason Jurjevich. doi:10.1080/24694452.2024.2353172. Annals of the AAG open access

Silicon Forest and Server Farms: The (Urban) Nature of Digital Capitalism in the Pacific Northwest. 2019. Culture Machine 18: 1-14. With Anthony M Levenda. MDSoar

Data Colonialism through Accumulation by Dispossession: New metaphors for daily data. 2016. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 34 (6): 990–1006. With Jim Thatcher and David O’Sullivan. doi:10.1177/0263775816633195

Jane Jacobs and the Value of Older, Smaller Buildings. 2016. Journal of the American Planning Association 82 (2): 1-14. With Michael Powe, Emily Talen, Jonathan Mabry. doi:10.1080/01944363.2015.1135072

Selected Recent Presentations

Mahmoudi, Dillon, and Alan Wiig. “Land for AI: Data Center Real Estate Markets.” March 2025. Annual Conference of the American Association of Geographers (AAG). Detroit, MI.

Jurjevich, Jason, and Dillon Mahmoudi. “The Ground Rent Machine: The Story of Race, Housing, Inequality, and Dispossession in Baltimore, Maryland.” March 2025. Annual Conference of the American Association of Geographers (AAG).

Tarr, Alex, and Dillon Mahmoudi. “What is the Value of X: Digital Labor and Dead Labor in the Production of a Platform.” March 2025. Annual Conference of the American Association of Geographers (AAG).

Keynotes

“Racialized Geographies, Racialized Science: Citizen Science, Racial Capitalism, and Knowledge Production.” February 2023. University of Virginia EviroDay Research Forum and Symposium. Charlottesville, VA.

“Re-projecting Geography onto the Digital.” November 2022. Royal Geography Society-Institute of British Geographers Digital Geography Symposium. Virtual.

Conference Organization

Capillary Critical Geographies Conference, Montréal, QC. May 2025.

Doing Critical GIS, Baltimore, MD. April 2019.

Space of Struggle: Radical Planning Mini-Conference, Portland, OR. November. November 2016. Sponsored by Critical Planning and Planners Network.

Critical Geographies Mini-Conference, Portland, OR. November 2015.