A group of scholars and professionals from across the University of Illinois campus has come together to create a new digital humanities project: Parthenon at Illinois.
The team includes two professors from the Department of Classics: Victoria Austen and Elias Petrou, who also serves as a professor and classical studies librarian at the University Library. Also on the team: Mary Ton, professor and digital humanities librarian at the University Library, and Christa Deacy-Quinn, senior collections manager at the Spurlock Museum.
The project has received a $30,000 financial award from the Illinois Campus Research Board, which was established in 1932 to serve the campus as a conduit for the distribution of funding to support faculty members’ research projects and creative activities.
Parthenon at Illinois studies the long history of replication through the lens of historic plaster casts of the Parthenon friezes at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Spurlock Museum of World Cultures. The project adapts cutting-edge 3D digitization and manufacturing techniques to make digital and physical replicas of the Illinois cast collection.
“While technologies like 3D printing and modeling are often linked to STEM, a humanities perspective reveals their place within a much longer tradition of replica-making. I’m particularly excited to collaborate with Victora, Elias, and Christa to study how different stakeholder communities interact with our digital and physical replicas,” said Ton, who serves as the principal investigator (PI) for the project.
Petrou and Austen, who serve as co-PIs, voiced their excitement for outreach opportunities beyond campus.
“This grant is important because it enables us to bring the history and cultural significance of the Parthenon to the Greek community in Chicago through dedicated events and outreach. By working together, we aim to celebrate shared heritage, promote dialogue, and create new opportunities for engagement with the past,” said Petrou. Austen added, “Collaborating on such an interdisciplinary project will also foster important long-term connections on campus between multiple units.”
Deacy-Quinn, who has served as the caretaker of the cast collection since 1991, said, “I am excited to re-engage with the plaster casts in a new way. By making replicas of these historic casts, we can explore more pathways of learning and accessibility.”
Project updates will be shared in English and Greek through the Parthenon at Illinois website.
Editor's note: This story first appeared on the University Library's Recognizing Excellence website.