Projects

Current Projects

CITF Postdoc
Articulating social, collaborative and discursive aspects of epidemiological data-sharing initiatives, and how they relate to, overlap with or conflict with technical, institutional and epistemic factors.
zackbatist.info/CITF-Postdoc
github.com/zackbatist/CITF-Postdoc

Deriving insights for research data sharing from a large-scale data sharing initiative in Canada
A systematic analysis of records generated in the creation of the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) Databank and of interviews with its partners, to develop insights to support new and ongoing data sharing initiatives.

Bibliometric network analysis of Viking Age research (BibVik)
Identifying trends in the published archaeological literature corresponding with shifting attitudes concerning the origins of the Viking Age.

Name TBD
Concerned with positive leadership as a key factor in bringing out the most from an academic environment, through the historical example of Stefan Meyer, Professor and Director of the Radium Institute in Vienna, who mentored several prominent women scientists during the interwar period.

Continuous Projects

archaeo.social
Mastodon instance and social media collective for archaeology.
about.archaeo.social

open-archaeo
A list of open source archaeological software and resources.
open-archaeo.info
github.com/zackbatist/open-archaeo

diamond.open-archaeo
A list of open venues for publishing, reviewing and curating archaeological research.
diamond.open-archaeo.info
github.com/open-archaeo/diamond.open-archaeo.info

Digital Archaeology Maintainathon
A list of open venues for publishing, reviewing and curating archaeological research.
sslarch.github.io/maintainathon
github.com/sslarch/maintainathon

Past Projects

E-CURATORS
Led by Costis Dallas at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information. Investigated pervasive curation practices manifested in archaeological research and communication work “in the wild”, i.e. outside custodial collections or professional stewardship. As a senior research asisstant, I was responsible for establishing qualitative and quantitative research protocols, collecting and analyzing observational and interview data, designing and maintaining graph databases which served as the project’s backbone, coordinating with international and inter-institutional collaborators, leading in-depth training workshops for junior research assistants, and leading publication of our findings (10.1515/opar-2020-0217).

Stelida Naxos Archaeology Project (SNAP)
stelida.mcmaster.ca
Led by Tristan Carter at McMaster University’s Department of Anthopology. A geo-archaeological excavation of a chert source and associated early prehistoric stone tool workshops, conceivably first exploited as long as 260,000 years ago, with some of its early visitors likely including Neanderthals. As Database Manager, I maintained relational databases, established data entry and processing workflows, curated the project’s digital resources, and optimized the project’s tech stack for rough fieldwork environments. I also developed QuARI, a database interface designed to facilitate the irregular, iterative and non-linear workflows that are commonly employed in lithic analysis (10.1017/aap.2021.11).

Database of Obsidian Sourcing Studies (DObsiSS)
A list of chemically characterized archaeological obsidian, compiled from published journal articles, excavation reports, conference papers and other scholarly records. Created for my Master’s thesis.
zackbatist.info/DObsiSS
github.com/zackbatist/DObsiSS
handle.net/11375/16528