Cultural informatics, data & computational cultural studies lab

The Cultural Informatics, Data and Computational Cultural Studies Lab welcomes Geert Lovink, founder of the Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam University of Applied Science, who will lecture to the course “Contemporary Visual Culture: Image in the era of AI” taught by Yannis Skarpelos, on October 15, 2025.

Geert Lovink is a Dutch media theorist, internet critic, and author of Uncanny Networks (2002), Dark Fiber (2002), My First Recession (2003), Zero Comments (2007), Networks Without a Cause (2012), Social Media Abyss (2016) and Sad by Design (2019). In 2003 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne, followed by a postdoc position at the University of Queensland. In 2004 he founded the Institute of Network Cultures at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA). From 2004-2012 he was associated professor in the new media program of Media studies, University of Amsterdam. In 2005-2006 he was a fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study (Wiko) in Berlin. From 2007-2017 he taught at the European Graduate School (Saas-Fee/Malta) where he supervised five Ph.D. students. Late 2021 Geert Lovink was appointed Professor of Art and Network Cultures at the Art History Department, Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam.

On March 20, 2025, the kick-off meeting of the More than a joke: humour in times of dictatorships (MENTOR) project took place. During the meeting the project modules were clarified and the work packages were presented. The team of the CID-CCS Lab, as the only academic partner, is responsible of designing the questionnaires, oral history interviews and testimonies, as well as formulating guidelines for the collection of other material and organizing the exhibitions to be held in each participating country.

The year began positively for participants of the international 𝗘𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗺𝘂𝘀+ 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗡𝗢𝟮 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 – “Green Roofs in higher education institutions as sustainable cEnters for research, participation, ENvironmental consciousness and O2 generation”. The National Institute for Documentation, Innovation, and Educational Research (INDIRE – Italian National Erasmus+ Agency) has completed its analysis of the interim report on the project’s implementation.

INDIRE has graded the project as “very good,” the highest possible rating, as stated by the Erasmus+ GREENO2 coordinator, Professor Andrea Colantoni.

The monitoring of the GREENO2 Project’s implementation and the report for its first activity period highlighted the participants’ coordinated and collaborative efforts. Experts from INDIRE particularly noted that the project is well-structured, with an effective monitoring system and strong synergy among partners. The communication and dissimination aspects of the project were especially commended.

The GREENO2 Project aims to promote the concept of green roofs as sustainable centers for research and as a means of reducing energy demand, thereby lowering CO2 emissions. The project has brought together eight prestigious partners from six European countries: Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, and Ukraine. Launched on September 1, 2023, the project will run for three years. The University of Tuscia is the Project’s coordinator.

Detailed information about the Erasmus+ GREENO2 Project can be found on its official website: https://greeno2.eu.

The current issue of The Greek Review of Social Research, is hosting a special issue on The computational turn in social sciences, edited by Yannis Skarpelos, Kostas Karpouzis, Martha Michailidou.

The whole issue is open access and can be reached here.

Contents:

• Nikos Smyrnaios, Panos Tsimpoukis, Charis Papaevangelou “A cure worse than the disease? The controversy on Twitter around a fake COVID-19 treatment from France“
• Dimitris Elafropoulos, “The Covid-19 pandemic in Greece through the lens of methodological synergy: Combining corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis approaches“
• Sophia Messini, “Emotion during election periods: Deciphering Twitter users’ discourse“
• Valia Kaimaki, Dimitris Ampeliotis, Aggeliki Sgora, Agisilaos Konidaris , Spyros Polykalas, “An algorithm measuring the charisma of Greek journalists“
• Georg P. Mueller, “Virtual encounter simulations for comparing public expectations about the role of the welfare state“
• Stavroula Dargonaki, “Mapping a hybrid phenomenon in the digital world: The Greek professional gaming scene through Social Network Analysis (SNA)“
• Ioanna Zouli, “‘‘We don’t really know how it’s going to work’’: The front-end and back-end processes of action-led research at Tate“
• Dimitra Kondyli, Nicolas Klironomos, “Challenges and opportunities for the re-use of New Data Types (NDTs) in a changing landscape“
• Apostolos Linardis, Dimitra Kondyli, Konstantinos Alexandris, Konstantinos Papagiannopoulos, Konstantinos – Symeon Nisiotis, Nikolaos Mastoris, Nicolas Klironomos, “Configuring, optimizing and enhancing Dataverse: The case of SoDaNet Repositories“

The Cultural Informatics, Data, and Computationa Cultural Studies Lab is organizing, within the European research project diFree (Digital Freelancing for Higher education students and Recent Graduates), a workshop at the Sakis Karagiorgas II Auditorium, on Monday, June 3, from 10:00 to 14:00. The event will be greeted by the Head of the Department, Professor G.-M. Klimis, and presentations will be made by the Professors of the Department of Communication, Media, and Culture, Betty Tsakarestou and Stavros Kaperonis, career counselors Markos Korvesis and Pepi Marioli, as well as the Director of Professional Training of DYPA, Dr. Thanos Panagopoulos.

Join us for an insightful webinar featuring Dr. Kostas Karpouzis, a distinguished expert in social and political sciences. He is affiliated with Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens, Greece. Dr. Karpouzis is also an IEEE CS Distinguished Visitor. With extensive experience in his field, he has made significant contributions to various international projects and academic initiatives. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from a leading authority in the field.

Join the webinar : https://lnkd.in/eAkvTUuc
Date and Time: Thursday, 30th May 2024, 04:00 PM (UTC)
Topic: Kostas Karpouzis on “Research Ethics in the Age of AI”
For more information about Dr. Karpouzis, visit : https://lnkd.in/gw5acGzK

The Transnational Project Meeting of the G-Force program was successfully held on April 4 and 5 at the University of Cadiz. Representatives from all partners (Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Poland, Romania) participated in the meeting. The research team from Panteion University was composed of Giannis Skarpelos, Dinos Efthymiou, and Efi Drouva.

The G-Force Project (enForcing gender equality and cOntributing to sexual oRientation respeCt in a higher Education institutions alliance) aims to empower the academic community to address gender violence and respect for sexual orientation, and to provide specialized information on issues of equality, discrimination, violence, and sexual harassment in higher education. The team from Panteion University and the CID-CCS Lab is leading the project and coordinating the partners’ individual actions.

During the meeting, the partners presented their proposals for the work packages concerning the creation of:

• Online “courses” with guidelines for education about gender stereotypes, equality, and good practices in addressing stereotypes and gender violence,
• A manual/user guide for the tools to be developed during the project. The guide will also include instructions for their pedagogically correct implementation by the academic community,
• Applications of artificial intelligence and applications for mobile devices.

The successful Transnational Project Meeting of the GreenO2 program took place on the 4th and 5th of April at the University of Cadiz. Representatives from all partners (Greece, Italy, Spain, Poland, Ukraine) participated in the meeting. The research team from Panteion University (Yannis Skarpelos, Dinos Efthymiou, and Efi Drouva) presented the design for a platform and an online learning environment.

The GreenO2 (Green Roofs in higher education institutions as sustainable Centers for research, participation, ENvironmental consciousness, and O2 generation) projectaims to:

• Promote green roofs as the academic community’s answer to environmental protection, active participation, and well-being in tertiary education,
• Provide environmental education through a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on green roofs, accessible via the EduOpen platform, which will be regularly updated,
• Encourage the utilization of the green roof as a center for research and environmental awareness, study, and/or recreation area, etc.

On Sunday 31/3, 12:00 – 14:00, the Ellinogermaniki School, the Cultural Informatics, Data and Computational Cultural Studies Lab of Panteion University, ScienceView and Ecsite, European Network of Science Centres & Museums, organize a unique workshop in the framework of the Road_steamer project. This workshop aims to engage educators and educational policy makers in a dialogue on the prerequisites and requirements for effective STEAM approaches, the policy framework for the implementation of STEAM activities as well as to discuss real-life implementation cases around STEAM education.

In the framework of the workshop, Assistant Professor Costas Karpouzis will present a paper on “Analysis of the Policy Framework for STEAM”. It is also possible to and a link will be sent to those who register remotely. Participants will also be given certificates.

We invite you to a series of six webinars on museums and socialmedia, every Thursday at 18:00 from 29 February to 11 April. These meetings will be in English, one hour long, and via Zoom.

Six researchers share the results of their research with the general public. The meetings are aimed at museum professionals, researchers, and students, with the aim of highlighting the socio-cultural dimension in the study of social media use in museums and shedding light on both public preferences and cultural institutions’ pursuits of these media.

At the same time, the creation of a Museum Social Media Cultures ResearchNetwork is being launched, aiming to create a community of experts and professionals who examine and research issues related to museums and social media, but also to generate specialized knowledge and proposals in this field, which is of increasing concern to museums and cultural organizations.

Seminar titles and dates

Every Thursday at 18:00 from 29 February until 11 April, the following seminars are held in English with the following titles:

29 February: “TikTok: The Evolving Role of Social Media in Museum Education”.

7 March: “Envisioning digital infrastructures for social inclusion work”.

14 March: “Assessing success on museum social media: an alternative approach”.

21 March: “Reconsidering Audiences, Attendees, and Fandoms in Museums”.

4 April: “Critically reflecting on the monopolization of cultural knowledge by large-commercial platforms: towards open and participatory approaches”.

11 April: “Social media as a site for contemporary collecting”.

The seminars are free of charge but pre-registration is required. You can register here.

The seminars are held under the auspices of the Laboratory for Cultural Informatics, Data and Digital Cultural Studies, in collaboration with.

• the Laboratory for Culture and Cultural Management,
• the direction “Cultural Management” of the MSc Cultural Management, Communication and Media,

of the Department of Communication, Media and Culture of Panteion University.