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Athenaeum

Established in partnership with the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences (CLAHS), Athenaeum is a suite of rooms in Newman Library dedicated to cultivating and supporting Digital Humanities teaching, learning, research, and publication at Virginia Tech.

The suite consists of four rooms:

  • a modular Classroom,
  • an intimate Collaboration Room,
  • the Media Den production studio,
  • and a Consultation Office.  

If you would like to inquire about booking any of the rooms for an event, workshop, project, meeting, or to accommodate an upcoming course you are teaching, please check availability on the calendars below and email athenaeum@vt.edu with your request.

In these spaces, Athenaeum staff work with a wide array of faculty, students, librarians, technology specialists, and other campus partners to plan classes, activities, and events devoted, in one way or another, to the Digital Humanities. 

In all Athenaeum activities we work with our partners to strike a balance between hands-on, experiential enterprises such as podcast development or mixed-media web publication and more traditional scholarly activities such as seminars and speaker series featuring Digital Humanities scholars of local, regional, national, and international renown. 

The space is managed by Joe Forte (joeforte@vt.edu), Athenaeum Coordinator and Digital Humanities Specialist.

The Athenaeum suite is flexible, dynamic, and ever-evolving in its capabilities and the breadth of its purview. If you wish to tour the suite or to speak with Joe or one of his staff, you may contact the Athenaeum or schedule a consultation here. 

The Classroom is a modular space that supports class sizes up to 42 as well as a range of events and activities for up to 54 people. The Classroom is set up for courses with a digital lab component, conferences, seminars, workshops, rehearsals, idea incubation, hackathons, researchathons, tech meet-ups, or whatever else you can imagine. The space includes tables and whiteboards on wheels, 7 large screens with speakers, digital projection, 4 wireless microphones, and a stocked laptop cart. 

The Collaboration Room is designed for small-scale, active collaboration for up to 10 participants. The space is available to the community for agile digital engagement, dynamic problem-solving, consultation, and teleconferencing. The room is prioritized for use by faculty, students, and affiliates of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, who can schedule the room up to 24 hours in advance. An individual from a CLAHS discipline must be associated with a meeting for advanced scheduling. If the space is unscheduled, students from any part of the university can request use of the space on the day-of through direct contact with the Digital Humanities Assistant. The schedule will be posted outside the room each day.

The Media Den is a purpose-built, managed, and intentionally isolated media studio designed for dynamic digital capture of all manner of oral histories, personal narratives, spoken facts, and tall tales. The room is prioritized for use by faculty, students, and affiliates of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, who can schedule the room up to 24 hours in advance. An individual from a CLAHS discipline must be associated with a meeting for advanced scheduling. If the space is unscheduled, students from any part of the university can request use of the space on the day of through direct contact with the Digital Humanities Assistant. The Media Den requires orientation for the equipment in the room, which is supported by the Digital Humanities Assistant. The assistant can ordinate users of the space, or they can provide adequate documentation of similar A/V equipment training.

Contact

athenaeum@vt.edu
540-231-6737

Room Reservation Form