Visualizing the Classics


Anvil Academic and Dickinson College Commentaries announce the availability of a $1,000 prize for the best scholarly visualization of data in the field of classical studies submitted during 2013. Two runners-up will be awarded prizes of $500 each. Submissions must include:

  • visual representation of data that involves some linguistic component (Latin, Greek, or another ancient language of the Greco-Roman worlds), but may also include physical, geospatial, temporal, or other data;
  • a research question and narrative argument that describes the conclusions drawn from the data and the visualization; and
  • the source data itself.

Submissions should not consist of a previously composed article, website, or poster, but may be based on such work. Submissions should consist of an image, map, or infographic (.jpg or .png), and a narrative of approximately 1,000 words that describes the research question and the results as illustrated in the visualization. The narrative should include links to the source data used to create the image, map, or infographic. Submissions will be judged on the quality of the visualization, the interest of the research question, the relevance of the data, and the cogency of the conclusions.

Submissions in any and all sub-fields of classical studies, including pedagogical approaches, are welcome from any individual or team. The three winning submissions will be published by Anvil under a Creative Commons license (CC-BY-ND). The visualizations themselves and the narratives that accompany them will be published on Anvil’s website. The source data may be published there as well; though in any case the source data must be in some published form and included, even if only via link, with the submission. Submissions will be evaluated by the panel of reviewers listed below on the criteria of scholarly contribution, effectiveness of the visualization, accuracy and relevance of the data, and the cogency of the conclusions drawn. Existing digital projects are welcome to submit entries, which must be formatted in a way that can be republished by Anvil, as described above.

Please contact Fred Moody (fmoody@anvilacademic.org)  or Chris Francese (francese@dickinson.edu) with any questions.

Deadline for submission: December 31, 2013, to fmoody@anvilacademic.org; only submissions in electronic form will be considered.

Panel of reviewers:

John Bodel, W. Duncan MacMillan II Professor of Classics and Professor of History, Brown University

Alison Cooley, Reader & Deputy Head, Department of Classics & Ancient History, University of Warwick

Gregory Crane, Professor of Computer Science, Tufts University, and Humboldt Professor, Universität Leipzig

Lin Foxhall, Professor of Greek Archaeology and History, Head of School, School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester

Chris Francese, Professor of Classical Studies, Dickinson College

Jonathan Hall, Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities and Professor of History and Classics, University of Chicago

Dominique Longrée, Professor of Classics, University of Liège and Saint-Louis University, Brussels

Andrew M. Riggsby, Professor of Classics and Art History, University of Texas at Austin

Greg Woolf, Professor of Ancient History, University of St. Andrews