Lab Activity Updates

All lab activity updates

2026

• June 23, 2026 update: Special issue article

  Shane Lin, Winnie Pérez Martínez, & Jeremy Boggs wrote & submitted an essay on their UVA digital archive work around the events at UVA+Charlottesville August 11-12th 2017, for a library & DH special journal issue on static sites.

• June 15, 2026 update: Reading refusal

  Jeremy is reading No! The Art and Activism of Complaining by Sara Ahmed & thinking about what Bartleby the scrivener would do when faced with AI.

• June 5, 2026 update: #Mincomp for preservation that matters

  Drew reworked the footprint of projects highlighting Indigenous benches in Brazil, to help justify their continued preservation despite the departure of the collaborator from the University.

• June 4, 2026 update: Zines

  Amanda Wyatt Visconti published 3 free teaching zines (94 pages!) in Spring 2026 on censored public history, a book arts method, & exploring creative research funding opportunities.

• May 25, 2026 update: Creative research practice teaching

  Shane Lin and UVA Library colleague/SLab alum Jacqui Sahagian typeset a letterpress example at the Virginia Book Arts printshop, to teach an upcoming “Transforming Your Research” workshop for PhD+ students, focusing on creative research practice using historical and current technologies.

• May 19, 2026 update: Digital research collaboration

  Drew & Arin have been working with IATH Fellow Tess Farmer’s Digital Sabils project on Cairo’s charitable water fountains, including Arin live remote troubleshooting a team in Egypt’s 3D artifact scanning, & this mapping work from Drew.

• May 17, 2026 update: Scholarly org president

  Brandon Walsh has been elected co-VP/Presidents Elect of the U.S.-based, international-membership digital humanities scholarly org, the Association for Computers & the Humanities!

• May 11, 2026 update: Creative research invited speaking

  Amanda Wyatt Visconti recently presented on their intersecting DH & letterpress work (including makerspace, coding, & accessibility research as well as creative practice) as a speaker for Partners in Print’s “Print Futures” series.

• May 7, 2026 update: Forthcoming book

  Brandon Walsh’s 1st book, “Embedded Pedagogies: Digital Humanities Teaching and the Infrastructure of Change” is forthcoming from Open Book Publishers!

• April 28, 2026 update: Local history teamwork

  Will Rourk directed a team of students, Fluvanna County community, & architecture preservation professionals in completing the documentation necessary to nominate the ~1935 Evergreen African-American School as an official historic site with the Virginia Dept of Historic Resources.

• April 27, 2026 update: Historical society presentation

  Brandon Walsh presented on adaptive makerspace tech & some of our digital collecting projects, for our local historical society’s event at a retirement home.

• April 20, 2026 update: 3D immersion

  Arin Bennett has been working w/colleagues in the lab & UVA Special Collections to put a scanned model of what UVA looked like in 1924 through the TwinMotion software toward immersive visualizations.

• April 13, 2026 update: 3D experiments

  Shane Lin has been experimenting with 3D printing lithophanes (translucent art that reveal detailed, high-contrast images when backlit) using new methods of layering translucent CMYK filament with a multicolor printer to recreate color photos.

• April 6, 2026 update: Circulation data science

  Laura Miller has been thinking about ways to use a new, anonymized library circulation dataset for a potential summer collaborative DH project, exploring how our local community reads

• April 1, 2026 update: Currently Collaborating

  Drew Macqueen learned about processing & geotagging photos, collaborating with a local artist & Library colleague to map & visualize photos of Virginia taken through the windows while riding trains throughout the state.

• March 22, 2026 update: Current Fieldwork

  Will Rourk 3D-scanned one of the telescope domes at Fan Mountain Observatory last Thursday.

• March 16, 2026 update: Currently Learning

  Ronda Grizzle has been learning about recording & editing podcasts using Audacity & the Library’s media system, because she starts recording the “DH is People” podcast episodes this week. (Coming soon to a SLab social media account near you!)

• March 10, 2026 update: Currently Prototyping

  Ammon Shepherd and a SLab student alum used our makerspace to prototype a cast for glassblowing custom drinking glasses: cutting acrylic for a tank to hold a 3D-printed glass cast & plaster of Paris, figuring out both clay & glue were needed to best seal the acrylic.

• February 25, 2026 update: Currently Reading

  Jeremy Boggs is currently reading Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew Crawford, and thinking about code and design as craftwork.

2025

• December 1, 2025 update: New coauthored zine publication

  Amanda Visconti and Shane Lin published a 20-page zine, Absolute Units of Letterpress: Plus Rad Measurement Facts.

• October 17, 2025 update: External DH leadership activity

  Laura Miller and Amanda Visconti attended a Mellon-funded invitational summit of DH center leaders.

• October 14, 2025 update: Invitation to external academic summit

  Will Rourk was invited to the Cultural Heritage Imaging Professionals summit at the Getty in 2026.

• October 14, 2025 update: Charlottesville Zine Fest tabling

  Amanda Wyatt Visconti is tabling at the 3rd annual Charlottesville Zine Fest on 10/18.

• October 10, 2025 update: Award: MUDs for student writing

  Arin Bennett received a funding award for his collaboration supporting a UVA writing course’s exploration of MUDs (multi-user dungeons, a text-based digital game genre) for teaching composition.

• September 29, 2025 update: Artist residency: Amanda Wyatt Visconti

  Amanda Wyatt Visconti was awarded a monthlong artist residency & fellowship at the Penland School of Craft.

• September 19, 2025 update: Culture, Engagement, and Community Grant awarded: Zine Bakery

  Amanda Wyatt Visconti was awarded one of UVA Library’s Culture, Engagement, and Community Grants to expand the capacity of the Zine Bakery @ Scholars’ Lab public zine distro.

• September 17, 2025 update: Public exhibit: ABCs of UVA Library

  Will Rourk, Arin Bennett, and Amanda Wyatt Visconti contributed mini-exhibits on point-cloud data and zines to the public Special Collections exhibit “The ABCs of UVA Library” opening September 17 in the Harrison-Small Gallery.

• September 16, 2025 update: Award: Ammon Shepherd Arts Council Funding

  Ammon Shepherd received UVA Arts Council funding for our critical humanities makerspace work.

• September 2, 2025 update: Engaged Faculty at UVA: Will Rourk

  Will Rourk was added to the Engaged UVA faculty page, “a growing directory of UVA faculty whose teaching, research, or service activities engage local or global community partners”.

• August 23, 2025 update: New zine publication: 'Queer Book History'

  Amanda Wyatt Visconti published a new, 32-page research & teaching zine, Queer Book History.

• August 22, 2025 update: New collaborative scholarly bibliography: 'Queer Book History'

  Amanda Wyatt Visconti was a project team member on a newly published, 650+ item research & teaching resource: the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP) LGBTQIA+ Book History Bibliography.

• July 11, 2025 update: DH 2025 Conference Presentation

  Amanda Visconti gave a presentation at the hybrid Digital Humanities 2025 Conference the week of July 14th (poster shared here).

• June 1, 2025 update: Invited fieldwork in Italy

  Will Rourk is giving an invited talk for the University of Padua in Italy, accompanied by collaborative 3D historical documentation fieldwork with the Vincenza Field School of a rare Palladian bridge there, accompanied by a UVA Architecture faculty member and student.

• May 20, 2025 update: Multiple invited talks & teaching

  Amanda Visconti taught two workshops at and attended the Mellon-funded “Building BookLabs” Symposium on humanities makerspaces and teaching/research book arts printshops; gave an invited talk on Bluesky social media for librarians for the Metropolitan NY LIbrary Council; and gave an invited talk on their Zine Bakery research for the Cal Poly Humboldt Libraries Innovation Summit.

• May 16, 2025 update: New OA volume essay

  Amanda Wyatt Visconti authored an essay on DH+AI in the new OA volume “Reimagining AI for Environmental Justice and Creativity”.

• May 1, 2025 update: New zines

  2 new staff-authored, free zines! Ammon Shepherd authored “How to make a zine in 6 easy steps”; Arin Bennett authored “Let’s make a MUD! Exploring text-based multiplayer worlds with GoMUD Engine”.

• April 25, 2025 update: Invited scholarly publishing talk

  Brandon Walsh was an invited speaker at an ACH (DH scholarly org) event on Publishing in DH.

• April 25, 2025 update: Zhou & Shepherd new installation

  Our new public installation, Memory Maps, was created by Critical Makerspace Fellow Holly Zhou in collaboration with our Ammon Shepherd.

• April 15, 2025 update: New scholarly exhibit

  Virtual Artist-in-Residence Claudia Berger’s new data quilt and accompanying research zine are installed in the Scholars’ Lab Common room.

• February 19, 2025 update: Staff article publication

  Amanda Wyatt Visconti published an article, “Organized futures: speculative infrastructure design for more just and joyful scholarly community”, in the Journal of Electronic Publishing special issue “On Gathering”.

• January 24, 2025 update: Staff grants awarded

  Will Rourk successfully proposed a UVA CESL grant sending funds to community partners working on preservation and use of historic Black Virginian school buildings. Arin Bennett is a collaborator on a successful UVA Thrive grant with Devin Donovan on a ENWR class MUD/MOO project.

• January 22, 2025 update: Staff zine publications

  Amanda Visconti wrote and published 3 zines in the past month: “Yes, Virginia, there is ICE here too “, “The Good Pets of UVA Library “ (with contributions from UVA Library colleagues), and “DIY Web Archiving” (collaboration w/Quinn Dombrowski, Tessa Walsh, Anna Kijas, and Ilya Kreymer).

• January 14, 2025 update: Staff teaching activity

  3 SLab staff are teaching for-credit classes as instructors of record this term: Will Rourk is teaching 3D Cultural Heritage Informatics via UVA’s Architecture School & Architectural History program, Jeremy Boggs is teaching Digital Public Humanities at Georgetown University, and Brandon Walsh is teaching a “Data for the Rest of Us” intro data science/DH course for the UVA Catalyst Program. Brandon’s and Jeremy’s course materials are shared online, as are Will’s materials from past similar courses.

• January 9, 2025 update: Staff conference activity

  Brandon Walsh is participating in the MLA 2025 conference as the ACH-MLA Affiliate (formal liaison between the DH and Modern Languages & Literatures scholarly orgs), member of the MLA 2024-2025 Delegate Assembly (for Theory & Method: Libraries and Research), and convenor of ACH’s special panel at the conference, on “Book History and the Digital Humanities”.

• January 7, 2025 update: Staff conference activity

  Jeremy Boggs & Praxis Fellow Oriane Guiziou-Lamour had a talk proposal on DH link rot accepted to the “Irresistable Decay” conference at the University of Warwick, March 2025.

2024

• December 3, 2024 update: Staff zine publication

  Amanda Visconti published a zine, “Look!! Here’s your unusual letterpress blocks invitation to joy: a collage mini-zine”.

• November 21, 2024 update: Staff chapter publication

  Brandon Walsh published a chapter, “The Futures of Digital Humanities Pedagogy in a Time of Crisis”, in the new open-access book Digital Futures of Graduate Study in the Humanities. Watch our events page or Bluesky for TBA details of a Spring 2025 public book event!

• November 13, 2024 update: Staff grant award

  Will Rourk successfully proposed a UVA Engage grant that will support community cultural heritage informatics preservation and research efforts for the Dunbar Rosenwald School and Fluvanna Evergreen African-American School buildings.

• November 6, 2024 update: Staff conference speaking

  Brandon Walsh and Amanda Visconti are presenting at the U.S.-based digital humanities scholarly org (the Association for Computers and the Humanities) annual conference, ACH 2024, with in two sessions including Praxis Fellow alums Seanna Viechweg and Fellow Crystal Luo.

• October 30, 2024 update: Staff zine publication

  Amanda Visconti and Zooniverse’s Sam Blickhan co-created & published a zine, “Speedweve for Mending”, as part of the public #DHMakes Methodz Talks Amanda organizes.

• October 25, 2024 update: Staff grant award

  Will Rourk successfully proposed a UVA Engage grant sending funds to Charlottesville’s The Haven day shelter (located in a historic church) & local nonprofit Doing Good. He recently 3D scanned the building in support of restoration and improvement efforts to better serve unhoused neighbors.

• October 23, 2024 update: Staff conference speaking

  Brandon Walsh and Mackenzie Brooks taught an online workshop, “Digital Pedagogy on Paper: An Assignment Redesign Workshop” for the DLF Forum Conference.

• October 17, 2024 update: AI staff speaking

  “Reimagining AI for Environmental Justice and Creativity” symposium: Amanda Visconti was an invited expert for a roundtable and OA volume on AI intersections w/cultural policy, heritage, creativity (10/23; sponsors UVA Karsh Digital Tech for Democracy Lab, Environmental Institute, Data Science).

• October 11, 2024 update: Staff external events

  Amanda Wyatt Visconti organized a series of external events, #DHmakes Methodz Talks, with DH scholars from around the country teaching making and crafting methods.

• September 9, 2024 update: Staff zine publication

  Amanda Wyatt Visconti published a mini-zine, “Lasercutting! Cheatsheet mini-zine for a Very Specific use case” on using our makerspace’s lasercutter, with thanks to Ammon Shepherd for providing a training refresh.

• September 5, 2024 update: Staff conference attendance

  Ammon Shepherd and 4 of our Makerspace Technician students are presenting talks at the International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces.

• August 19, 2024 update: Staff project release

  Brandon Walsh published “DH on the Go”, a website collecting digital humanities podcasts, audiobooks, & other video/audio of interest to DHers, open to public contributions via Zotero group.

• August 5, 2024 update: Lab conference involvement

  Multiple Lab staff or alum are presenting or facilitating a mini-conference at the August international digital humanities conference, DH 2024.

• August 1, 2024 update: Staff project release

  Amanda Wyatt Visconti published ZineBakery.com, a website sharing their project collecting, researching, & amplifying zines on culture, tech, and justice (of which Zine Bakery @ Scholars’ Lab is a public zine distro subset). Includes data visualization, metadata, coding, relational database work.

• July 2, 2024 update: Staff article publication

  SLab Director Amanda Visconti published an article on the recent history of #DHmakes/maker-craft work in DH in the inaugural issue of the Korean Journal of Digital Humanities, co-authored with Quinn Dombrowski and Claudia Berger.

• May 31, 2024 update: Lab article publication

  SLab Head of Student Programs Brandon Walsh published an article in the Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, co-authored with 4 former Praxis Fellows: “A Way In: Digital Pedagogy Training with Speculative, Low-Tech Workshops”.