Dates and Times: Friday, September 18, 2026 (9:00 a.m. – 5:45 p.m. EDT); Saturday, September 19, 2026 (9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. EDT)
Location: Center for Hellenic Studies, 3100 Whitehaven St. NW, Washington, DC 20008 and via Zoom

Please join us for a workshop exploring archaeological research and community engagement in a rapidly changing digital world.

Research across the study of the Greek past (broadly interpreted) is rapidly transforming as digital technologies offer new methodological tools for archaeologists to analyze, interpret, and share their findings. This workshop will explore recent developments in the use of digital tools (such as 3D modeling, GIS analysis, Virtual and Augmented Reality, AI and LLMs, photogrammetry, and digital archiving platforms), highlighting how emerging technologies mediate relationships between researchers, data, and broader publics. With the implementation of vanguard digital technologies in recording, analyzing, and sharing information about the past, archaeologists are imparted creative potentials. While the role of archaeologists as scientists has long been prioritized in an academic world where objectivity and rigor are standards of research excellence, we are interested in how digital technologies can augment the role of archaeologists as storytellers and worldbuilders. 

Rooted in interdisciplinarity and drawing on the expertise of scholars in the fields of archaeology, digital humanities, classics, heritage studies, information science, and related fields, we ask participants and audience members to examine the deeper ethical responsibilities involved in incorporating digital tools into the fundamentally humanistic and collaborative core of archaeological research and community engagement. Particular emphasis will be placed on issues of sustainability and data tenure, asking how digital projects can be responsibly maintained, archived, and reused over time to better serve the needs and interests of non-specialist communities and publics.

Schedule

Organized by Dr. Eleanor Q. Neil (Aarhus University) and Caroline Barnes (University of British Columbia)

All times are given in EDT.

Friday, 18 September

9:30–9:45 a.m.: Registration

9:45–10:00 a.m.: Naomi Weiss, Welcome and Introduction to CHS

10:00–10:15 a.m.: Eleanor Q. Neil, Welcome and Introduction

10:15–11:45 a.m.: Panel 1

Each presentation is 25 minutes with ∼5 minutes for questions/transition time. Each panel will conclude with a group discussion.

Theme: Generating and Managing Archaeological Data

10:15–10:45 a.m.: Anna Foka, Digital Periegesis: Navigating Philology through Archaeological Data

10:45–11:15 a.m.: Eric Kansa, Large Language Model (LLM) powered generative AI on digital scholarship

11:15–11:45 a.m.: Anne Chen (online), Knowledge Graphs (KGs) as Tools for “Braided” Archaeological Knowledge

11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.: Discussion

12:15–12:30 p.m.: Quick break

12:30–1:30 p.m.: Lunch

1:30–3:00 p.m.: Panel 2

Theme: Spanning Disciplines in Storytelling and Heritage

1:30–2:00 p.m.: Sara Perry, Navigating Disciplinary Resistances to Digital-Archaeological-Ethical Change: Reflections on Experiments in the UK and Europe to Support Communities and Archaeologists in Collaboratively Creating and Reusing Heritage Datasets

2:00–2:30 p.m.: Despoina Sampatakou, Story Brokers: Digital Media and the Politics of Knowledge

2:30–3:00 p.m.: Francesco Ripanti, Digital Journeys in Cyprus: Reflections on Storytelling, Worldbuilding, and Heritage Engagement

3:00–3:30 p.m.: Discussion

3:30–3:45 p.m.: Coffee break

3:45–5:15 p.m.: Panel 3

Theme: The Hellenic World and Beyond

3:45–4:15 p.m.: Kevin Garstki, How to See, How to Think: Creating Knowledge through the Digital in Cyprus and Slovenia

4:15–4:45 p.m.: Bill Caraher, Slow and Punk Archaeology Revisited: In Praise of Fragments

4:45–5:15 p.m.: Caroline Barnes, Contextualizing the Context: digital tools as as methods of precision and abstraction in Cyprus and Alaska

5:15–5:45 p.m.: Discussion

Saturday, 19 September

9:30–10:00 a.m.: Short presentation from Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies’ Fellow in AI Ethics, Danai Liodaki

10:00–10:15 a.m.: Q&A

10:15–10:45 a.m.: Coffee Break

10:45–11:45 a.m.: Group Activity

11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.: Eleanor Q. Neil, Wrapping Thoughts

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