Andrea’s bio and CV

Bio (250 words)

Andrea Ballatore (he/him) is a Senior Lecturer in Cultural Data Science at the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London, where he directs the Cultural Geo-Analytics Lab. His lab uses geographic data science to study cultural institutions, industries, and audiences, providing new insights into how and where culture is produced, accessed, and experienced. At the core, his work examines how spatial data can help understand cultural patterns and dynamics. Key themes include: the geographic distribution of cultural institutions and creative industries—such as museums, theatres, galleries, and cinemas—to uncover spatial inequalities in access and representation; geographic user-generated content from social media for urban analytics and planning; and geo-visualisation for the digital humanities.

His research has led to over 60 peer-reviewed publications and numerous collaborative projects with academic and non-academic partners. His work has received more than £1.2 million in competitive funding from AHRC, Ordnance Survey, and Facebook Research. His work has appeared in The Independent, Slate, MotherBoard/VICE, Quartz, and Mail & Guardian. Before joining King’s College, he held a Lectureship in Geographic Data Science at Birkbeck, University of London, and a postdoctoral position at the Center for Spatial Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He completed his PhD in Computer Science at University College Dublin in 2013 on spatial user-generated content.