Events

Visiting Fellow - Dr Illeana Sasu

"Getting Hands Dirty: Play, Practice, and Public-facing Science"

Open science is often associated with open access, open data, transparency, reproducibility, and the sharing of research outputs. Yet opening research also means opening up the processes, materials, gestures, and questions through which knowledge is produced. This introductory workshop reflects on how public-facing, participatory approaches can complement more familiar models of open science by making research not only accessible, but also tangible, memorable, and intellectually engaging.

The session will explore how we can share specialist research beyond the academic classroom without losing its complexity or rigour. Hands-on and playful formats (from ludo-pedagogy to transcribathons, object-based demonstrations, collaborative workshops can offer powerful gateways into fields that may otherwise seem distant or technical. They invite participants to understand research from the inside: by observing, trying, handling, making, and asking questions.

This first workshop will also include a short demonstration with gold leaf, goatskins, and feathers, introducing participants to some of the materials behind medieval manuscript culture. It will prepare the ground for the practical workshop “Scribes for a Day: Copying and Illuminating Medieval Psalms”, where participants will experiment directly with quill-cutting, copying, decoration, and the multilingual transmission of medieval psalms.

(More information here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/research/currentprojects/manuscriptandprintcultures/)