Reflections on the Twitter Conference “DH in the Time of Virus”

By Eliza Papaki | News | May 7, 2020

This is a guest post by Agiatis Benardou, Scientific Associate at the Digital Curation Unit / ATHENA R.C. and co-head of VCC2 in DARIAH.

On Thursday, April 2^nd 2020, at a time of extreme uncertainty and in the midst of social distancing, lockdowns and isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Digital Curation Unit / ATHENA R.C. designed and carried out the first Greek-run international Digital Humanities conference which took place entirely on Twitter.

The event, under the title “DH in the Time of Virus”, was organized in the context of APOLLONIS, the Greek Infrastructure for Digital Arts, Humanities and Language Research and Innovation, a compound of DARIAH-GR and CLARIN:EL, which is co-ordinated by ATHENA R.C.

“DH in the Time of Virus” was an experimental endeavour, inspired by a Public Archaeology Twitter Conference held entirely on Twitter in 2019, but this time the organizers saw fit to adopt and expand it as an idea, and to focus on the subject of Digital Humanities in the time of a highly contagious, potentially life-threatening virus.

To this end, the topics of the Twitter Conference were the following:

Distance education / e-Education
Remote research / e-Research
Defeating isolation: digital tools, methods and platforms
Digital History / Philology / Archaeology of Disease and Epidemic
Medical / Health Digital Humanities.

“DH in the Time of Virus” invited speakers were renowned Digital Humanities experts, both academics and practitioners, as well as Digital Research Infrastructures and Initiatives from across Europe.

The conference was significantly successful, while the hashtag #DHgoesVIRAL became a trending topic in Greece during and after the event. It is estimated that more than 2.8K users engaged in conversations during and following this event, from all over the world, Europe, the US, China, India and Australia.

Presentations

You may find the “DH in the Time of Virus” Twitter Conference presentations below:

Pelagios |@PelagiosNetwork (Elton Barker)

Imagine reading a literary work and accessing the archaeology of a place it mentions; or linking from a footnote to the scholarship on which the reference is based; or comparing an object in one museum to those in other collections around the world 1/20 #DHgoesVIRAL
— Elton Barker (@eltonteb) April 2, 2020

Melissa Terras |@melissaterras

Hi! I’m the Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage at @edinburghuni, & today I’ll be talking about the digitisation of Gallery, Library, Archive & Museum (GLAM) material in the context of #Covid19, & how that intersects with #digitalhumanities research interests #DHgoesVIRAL 1/20
— melissa terras (@melissaterras) April 2, 2020

ARIADNE Plus | @ARIADNEplus

The #ARIADNEplus team is happy to present its integration model and show how its digital platform enables collaborative work.

Thanks to colleagues of #APOLLONIS and @athenaRICinfo for showing, with this initiative, that #DH and #CH are stronger than #COVID19

1/15 | #DHgoesVIRAL
— ARIADNEplus Project (@ARIADNEplus) April 2, 2020

Katerina Gardikas |@kgardika

#dhgoesviral

Thread 3 by @kgardika on the role of medical historians and critical readings of the online #COVID19 coverage using reliable historical sources. https://t.co/n4uCpXwemb
— UEADHi (@UEADHi) April 2, 2020

Sara Di Giorgio & Flavia Bruni | @DiGiorgioSara

1/16 Hi everybody! I’m working at @iccu2, a central institute of @_MiBACT, that is adapting its services and projects to the severe impact of the #Covid19 outbreak. Today I will tweet about some National and European initiatives. This is our #DHgoesVIRAL paper thread.
— Sara Di Giorgio (@DiGiorgioSara) April 2, 2020

DARIAH-EU | @dariaheu

1/20 What can be the impact of digital humanities and Research Infrastructures in the time of a pandemic? How essential is e-research and how can we achieve this better? And what is the role of RIs in this process? #DHgoesVIRAL #digitalhumanities
— DARIAH-EU (@DARIAHeu) April 2, 2020

Giannis Tsakonas | @gtsakonas

#DHGoesViral

Thread 6 by @gtsakonas on the significance of #OpenAccess and #OpenScience for creativity, innovation and survival illustrated by examples including data sharing visualisation etc., infrastructure and crowdsourcing. https://t.co/d4lo1WPM9k
— UEADHi (@UEADHi) April 2, 2020

Europeana Research | @EurResearch

By its very nature, @Europeanaeu supports #eResearch by offering a wealth of resources coming from 3,700+ data providers. In the past few years, these resources have been increasingly complemented by sophisticated #tools for their reuse and enrichment. 1/15 #DHgoesVIRAL
— Europeana Research (@EurResearch) April 2, 2020

#dariahTeach | @dariahTeach

We are grateful to the #EuropeanCommission, especially @EUErasmusPlus which funded the 1st phase of @dariahTeach & @MEDIAprogEU for the current #IGNITE https://t.co/iNGXxjL18v project developing content for the #creative and #cultural industries #DHgoesVIRAL 15/16
— #dariahTeach (@dariahTeach) April 2, 2020

Sofia Papastamkou | @s_papastamkou

#DHGoesVIRAL

Thread 9 by @s_papastamkou is titled "The Global Event and a Deluge of Data" and its implications for historians and their (born-digital) sources.
— UEADHi (@UEADHi) April 2, 2020

Lorna Richardson | @lornarichardson

I start by acknowledging the horrific human cost of the Corvid-19 pandemic & the dedication of our underfunded, under resourced healthcare services. My paper today is about digital tech & the environment, & reflects on the structural effects of current isolation 1/20 #DHGoesVIRAL
— Lorna Richardson (@lornarichardson) April 2, 2020

George Mikros | @gmikros

I am really excited participating in the #DHgoesVIRAL with my presentation entitled: #κορονοιος: analyzing tweets containing the greek coronavirus hashtag in the first month of the COVID19 pandemics in Greece. (1/19)
— George Mikros (@gmikros) April 2, 2020

Athena RIC: a few words from the host | @athenaRICinfo

1/3 This concludes the presentations of #DHgoesVIRAL!All our warmest thanks to @quinnanya @kgardika @gmikros @s_papastamkou @lornarichardson @melissaterras @gtsakonas @DiGiorgioSara @AriadneNetwork @EurResearch @dariaheu @dariahTeach @PelagiosNetwork and of course @athenaRICinfo
— Agiati Benardou (@agiati) April 2, 2020

Quinn Dombrowski | @quinnanya

Fun feels like an odd topic right now, but in some way it was no less strange before. In academia, especially the humanities, we place so much value on “seriousness". “Serious” is a compliment. But this sets up a dichotomy that devalues its perceived opposite. #DHgoesViral 2/20
— Quinn Dombrowski (@quinnanya) April 2, 2020

Reflections on the Twitter Conference “DH in the Time of Virus”