Viral Networks: An Advanced Workshop in Digital Humanities and Medical History

FAIN: HAA-256132-17

Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA 24061-2000)
Tom Ewing (Project Director: January 2017 to May 2021)

An advanced workshop on incorporating digital humanities tools into medical history research. Preceded by a series of virtual meetings and activities, the two-day workshop will be held at the National Institutes of Health and will result in an open access publication of scholarly essays.

Viral Networks: An Advanced Workshop in Medical History and Digital Humanities will bring together scholars from the field of medical history whose research shows particular promise for making innovative use of methods, tools, and data from the digital humanities. Viral Networks will combine a face-to-face workshop in February 2018 at the National Institutes of Health with structured virtual editing activities that produce innovative scholarship. Workshop participants include twelve Contributing Scholars, each producing a chapter of original research; Consulting Scholars who are experts in network analysis; and an Advisory Board who will coordinate stages of collaborative writing, peer review, collective editing, and final publication in an open access and freely available scholarly platform. The requested funds will support travel costs for workshop participants; salaries for a Graduate Research Assistant and the Project Director; workshop costs; and honoraria for Consulting Scholars.

Media Coverage

Not a Fair Fight: ‘Viruses Don’t Play By Our Rules,’ Says MacPhail (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Carla Garnett
Publication: NIH Record
Date: 3/9/2018
URL: https://nihrecord.nih.gov/newsletters/2018/03_09_2018/story1.htm

Virginia Tech Publishing launches first peer-reviewed book under its own imprint (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Elise Monsour Puckett, Peter Potter
Publication: VT Tech Daily
Date: 6/7/2019
Abstract: Virginia Tech Publishing, Virginia Tech’s scholarly publishing hub housed in the University Libraries, recently launched “Viral Networks: Connecting Digital Humanities and Medical History,” the first peer-reviewed book to be released solely under the Virginia Tech Publishing imprint.
URL: https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2019/05/univlib-viralnetworks.html

Viral Networks workshop to use digital humanities tools to illuminate medical history (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Paula Bryon
Publication: VT Tech Daily
Date: 12/18/2017
URL: https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2017/12/clahs-viral-networks-workshop.html

Open-Access Book Based on 2018 Viral Networks Workshop Now Available (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Alan Carr
Publication: National Library of Medicine Newsbits
Date: 3/12/2019
Abstract: The new open-access book, Viral Networks: Connecting Digital Humanities and Medical History, comprising a collection of research papers, is now available from VT Publishing and NLM Digital Collections. The book is the product of the January, 2018, Viral Networks: An Advanced Workshop in Digital Humanities and Medical History, hosted by the National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine Division, supported by the Office of Digital Humanities of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and organized by Virginia Tech, and was a collaborative outcome of NLM’s ongoing collaboration with the NEH.
URL: https://news.nnlm.gov/psr-newsbits/viral-networks-open-access-book/

Viral Networks, Reconnected: Scholars Use Digital Tools to Explore Medical History (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Dana Talesnik
Publication: NIH Record
Date: 7/12/2019
Abstract: Some medical historians are looking at their research in a whole new light. Three of these scholars recently described their experiences using new digital platforms to bring a fresh perspective to their historical data. The scholars, who spoke at an NLM forum recently in Lister Hill Auditorium, were among 10 researchers featured in the new peer-reviewed, open-access book Viral Networks: Connecting Digital Humanities and Medical History. The forum reunited the trio a year after a 2018 workshop at NIH where they explored how network analysis can provide useful insights into their data. The workshop, forum and book are part of a long-standing digital humanities partnership between NIH and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
URL: https://nihrecord.nih.gov/newsletters/2019/07_12_2019/story2.htm

VT Publishing makes scholarly work in Blacksburg accessible to the world (Media Coverage)
Publication: Roanoke Times
Date: 8/3/2019
Abstract: VT Publishing has been particularly helpful for university researchers in advancing scholarship in their respective fields. Tech history professor Tom Ewing credited the library’s employees in making a reality the book he co-edited with Tech graduate student Katherine Randall . “Viral Networks” was published late last year as the first peer-reviewed academic book produced by VT Publishing. The book is a collection of academic essays that “explores the power of network thinking and analysis for humanities research.” The book is based on a 2018 conference in Bethesda, Maryland, that reviewed the study of medical networks and what they can tell researchers about medical history. The professionals at VT Publishing brought “technical skills and capacity” to the project, Ewing said.
URL: https://www.roanoke.com/news/education/vt-publishing-makes-scholarly-work-in-blacksburg-accessible-to-the/article_89005eb9-b740-5100-acab-36cc7e1dffef.html

Associated Products

Viral Networks: Connecting Digital Humanities and Medical History (Book)
Title: Viral Networks: Connecting Digital Humanities and Medical History
Author: Katherine Randall
Author: E. Thomas Ewing
Abstract: This volume of original essays explores the power of network thinking and analysis for humanities research. Contributing authors are all scholars whose research focuses on a medical history topic—from the Black Death in fourteenth-century Provence to psychiatric hospitals in twentieth-century Alabama. The chapters take readers through a variety of situations in which scholars must determine if network analysis is right for their research; and, if the answer is yes, what the possibilities are for implementation. Along the way, readers will find practical tips on identifying an appropriate network to analyze, finding the best way to apply network analysis, and choosing the right tools for data visualization. All the chapters in this volume grew out of the 2018 Viral Networks workshop, hosted by the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine (NIH), funded by the Office of Digital Humanities of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and organized by Virginia Tech.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://publishing.vt.edu/site/books/10.21061/viral-networks/
Access Model: Open Access
Publisher: VT Publishing
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: 9781949373011
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Viral Networks Website (Web Resource)
Title: Viral Networks Website
Author: E. Thomas Ewing
Abstract: Viral Networks: An Advanced Workshop in Medical History and Digital Humanities will bring together scholars from the field of medical history whose research shows particular promise for making innovative use of methods, tools, and data from the digital humanities. Viral Networks will combine a face-to-face workshop in January 2018 at the National Institutes of Health with structured virtual editing activities that produce innovative scholarship. Workshop participants include twelve Contributing Scholars, each producing a chapter of original research; Consulting Scholars who are experts in network analysis; and an Advisory Board who will coordinate stages of collaborative writing, peer review, collective editing, and final publication in an open access and freely available scholarly platform.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20180810104532/http://viralnetworks.org/

From Postcard to Book Cover: Illustrating Connections between Medical History and Digital Humanities (Article)
Title: From Postcard to Book Cover: Illustrating Connections between Medical History and Digital Humanities
Author: E. Thomas Ewing
Author: Katherine Randall
Author: Jeffrey S. Reznick
Abstract: This article examines the process by which a printed postcard, sent by a nurse training program as a recruitment device in the early twentieth century, became the cover of an edited volume, Viral Networks, produced simultaneously in print and electronic open access forms by Virginia Tech Publishing. The article was co-authored by Jeff Reznick, whose History of Medicine Division hosted the Viral Networks workshop, with Tom Ewing and Katie Randall, who co-edited the volume. The workshop and volume were supported by a Digital Humanities Advancement Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://jmla.pitt.edu/ojs/jmla/article/view/745
Access Model: Open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Journal of the Medical Library Association
Publisher: Medical Library Association

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