So our first colloquium has been and gone. Over all it was a very successful and enjoyable event, even though we do say so ourselves, and we had some pleasing feedback from our guests. It was a great opportunity to show off all the things we have been doing and using so far, such as transcribing using Textual Communities, getting ready for crowdsourcing, the impact we have been having (are are intending to have), and the research Christian, Marine and I have been doing, and to also get some great ideas from our guests of how we could move onwards and upwards with our project. We enjoyed talks from three external speakers – Professor Peter Ainsworth, Professor Carlos Heusch and Dr Manolo Hijano Villegas, and were joined by scholars from all over the globe (certain guests caused me to be more star-struck than I would like to admit).
Life is getting back to normal at EDIT HQ, now that everyone is cracking on after far too many Easter eggs (pun not intended, honest) and a post-colloquium celebratory adventure to the Safari Park for the students in the team. Honorary team-member Alicia even spotted a ‘medieval-looking’ rhino.
Our colleague Marine has gone off on her research adventures to Madrid and then to teach for a semester in Rennes, Bárbara and Fiona have returned home, and Zeth is (probably) somewhere in the ITSEE office, so we are slightly depleted in EDIT Towers now, and things are suddenly much quieter. But no rest for the wicked – we will now be starting the ball rolling with the next steps of our project, including lots of the ideas generated by the discussions at the colloquium, and are already starting to look forward to our next colloquium. Details to follow.
And just in case anyone doubted Christian’s artistic ability, I have included his wonderful and palaeographically accurate (ahem) Alfonsine Easter greeting.