Director's Message

Dear CESTA community and friends, 
 
At CESTA we pride ourselves on our collaborative environment, and this has never been more true than in these past several months. As this year draws to a close, it is timely to appreciate all that, with the ongoing support of our institutional sponsors, donors, and amazingly dedicated staff, our members achieved in this difficult period.

As one example of these achievements, you can read here the Summer 2020 CESTA Anthology--hot off the press. This year's Anthology, which was itself designed by students, showcases the extraordinary research and new modes of collaboration undertaken by CESTA researchers during the virtual summer of 2020.

Our community has come together in many other ways, as well: for our Tuesday seminars, for the first DH Public Lecture, and for a conference and workshop on Data Practices. I want to thank everybody who helped facilitate or who participated in these events, both near and far, in unprecedented numbers. We have also managed to make new connections (for example, with the incredibly talented and inventive undergraduate Cartographic Society), while welcoming into our group several new faculty collaborators, working on projects such as OpenGulf. Under the leadership of our new postdoctoral Director of Research, Daniel Bush, eleven graduate fellows started working in earnest this November, and we look forward to hearing more about their work in the coming months.

This sense of intellectual togetherness which so many have contributed to has never been more essential than in these days of distantness and loss, and it makes me all the more excited about the prospect of reconstituting our community in person, when this finally becomes possible.
 
I wish you a peaceful and warm winter break.

Sincerely,