Message from the Director

Dear Friends,

I hope this finds you healthy and safe. This is to update on how CESTA has been adapting to these trying times.

The shelter-in-place order has kept campus closed, but we have been moving forward with many of the activities that distinguish CESTA. And while we miss the unique collaborative energy that our physical open-space fosters, we are finding new ways to recreate it while working remotely. Our undergraduate research and graduate fellowship programs continue to run, and an online end-of-year DH showcase event on May 29 is set to show the work they have produced. Our weekly CESTA seminar is drawing audiences far and near in large numbers. And we are busy planning for a virtual version of our summer research internship program.

Some of our members have been adapting their research to the current pandemic crisis: Deborah Gordon has launched the Urban Ecology of the Pandemic project, and this summer Laura Stokes is inaugurating the Panic and Pandemic in Early Modern Europe project. And see already now the Life in Quarantine project started in the Poetic Media Lab, as well as the Literary Lab’s first post on their suite of projects, which they will present at the weekly CESTA seminar on May 26th.

I look forward to welcoming you back to the Center as soon as possible in person, but meanwhile please stay tuned as we strive to share the exciting work that our community is continuing to do.

With best wishes,


Giovanna Ceserani