Luciano Moreira

Abstract During the Decade of Ocean Science, oceans and the deep sea have gained attention for their vital ecological roles, prompting increased scientific investment. However, this growing body of research has not effectively reached the public, especially regarding deep-sea ecosystems. Public perception studies are limited, particularly those focused on the deep sea. This article compares findings from a U.S. study with previous research in Portugal on social representations of the deep sea. A total of 521 U.S. participants completed tasks assessing representations, perceptions, and attitudes. Results mirror the Portuguese study, revealing vague and conflicting representations. Both populations use contrasting terms (known vs. unknown, literal vs. abstract) to describe the deep sea. Despite cultural differences, similar results emerge: the deep sea is linked to education, science, and climate, while perceived threats reflect current concerns. Attitudes are generally positive toward preservation, economic use, and scientific exploration, contrasting earlier findings that showed skepticism toward economic exploitation. This study highlights the value of cross-cultural comparisons in understanding public views on complex environmental topics and supports the need for tailored communication strategies.

Abstract <jats:p>In 2019, a new infectious disease named COVID-19 emerged. Education went through a forced transition from face-to-face education to emergency remote education with limited time and resources. The meanings and impacts of this process on education and its stakeholders have not yet been systematised and discussed. A critical digital humanities perspective is urgently needed. This study aims to fill this gap by conducting a scoping review of 60 articles indexed on Scopus and/or Web of Science that addressed emergency remote education and analysing the results from the perspective of the digital humanities. The main findings, methodologies, and limitations of these studies were identified, organised, and systematised. Results indicate that emergency remote education was conducted by replicating face-to-face strategies, and digital affordances that could potentially be utilised to improve the overall experience were neglected. Despite claims of the opportunities that technologies offer for education, integrating them in a meaningful way is challenging: stakeholders attempted to reproduce the familiar, material educational world in digital media. At the same time, issues of digital equality and literacy continue to affect the education arena. The relevance of this research lies in systematising new evidence that should feed discussion regarding the need to bring a humanist view to the digital sphere, a challenge that digital humanities can only meet if they overcome technological and social deterministic approaches.</jats:p>

Abstract <jats:p>In this workshop, we explored a research example on the field of utopian studies and, within it, feminist criticism to illustrate text analysis with R language using metadata from the Lyman Tower Sargent Bibliography. Participants were introduced to the research topic, the R Studio environment, and guided through the iterative process of text analysis (word frequency and network analysis) with the Quanteda library. We aimed to show that visualizations are, more than results, part of a process that triggers new, more complex research questions</jats:p>