Past Editions
2025
The second edition of the Barcelona Summer School took place from 1st to 4th July 2025. Twenty-eight people participated.
Venues 2025
The school took place in the the Centre Civic Drassanes and in the University of Barcelona Physics Faculty.
The closing dinner took place on Thursday 3rd July at 19:30 in the restaurant Buenissimo.
Programme 2025
The 4-day programme consisted of lectures and discussions, hands-on practicals, and socials. 
Day 1: Welcome and Introduction
| Class/Event | Description | Lecturer |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome | Network speed dating | Martin |
| Lecture 1 | Introduction to network analysis in history and archaeology | Tom |
| Practical 1 | Network research with Gephi | Martin |
| Lecture 2 | Introduction to network metrics | Albert |
Day 2
| Class/Event | Description | Lecturer |
|---|---|---|
| Lecture 3 | Making sense of a network | Martin |
| Practical 2 | Gephi practical 2 | Martin |
| Lecture 4 | Network science models and theories | Sergi |
| Practical 3 | R: Installing, workspace, libraries, data | Tom and Matteo |
Day 3
| Class/Event | Description | Lecturer |
|---|---|---|
| Lecture 5 | Introduction to the case study of the R practical | Tom |
| Practical 4 | R practical 1: network analysis of Roman roads | Tom and Matteo |
| Lecture 6 | Research design | Cindarella |
| Practical 5 | Poster creation | Cindarella and Iza |
Day 4: Projects & critical perspectives
| Class/Event | Description | Lecturer |
|---|---|---|
| Practical 6 | R practical 2: : network analysis of Roman roads, significance of results | Tom and Matteo |
| Lecture 7 | Next steps for the case study: theories, models and methods | Tom |
| Practical 7 | Best practices: data and results deposition and documentation | Matteo |
| Lecture 8 | Critical Perspectives | Cindarella |
| Lecture 9 | Reality Check | Everybody |
| Wrap up | Next steps, conferences, resources, publications and evaluation reminder | Everybody |
2024
The first edition of the Barcelona Summer School took place from 25th to 29th June 2024. Twenty-eight people participated in the school.
Venues 2024
The school took place in the Centre Cívic Convent de Sant Agustí, in the city centre of Barcelona and in the University of Barcelona Physics Faculty.
The closing dinner was held on Friday 28th in the restaurant Buenissimo.
Programme 2024
The school is structured around theoretical lectures and computational practicals, alongside many socials.
Day 1 – Welcome & Introduction
- Opening social
- Lecture 1: Introduction to the summer school - what, why, and how of past network research
- Practical 1: Computational basics - set up coding workspace, and read network data
Day 2 – Data & Methods
- Practical 2: How to obtain, create, and clean network data
- Lecture 2: Network analysis and methods
- Practical 3: Exploratory network analysis
- Practical 4: Network visualization techniques 1: plotline/ggplot2
Day 3 – How to tackle a project?
- Lecture 3: Research design
- Practical 5: Networks as a model, a tool to gain insight into phenomena and data. Poster creation
- Practical 6: Network visualization techniques 2: Gephi tutorial
- Practical 7: Best practices: data and results deposition and documentation
Day 4 – Projects & Critical Perspectives
- Practical 8: Work on projects
- Lecture 4: Critical perspectives on historical and archaeological data
- Practical 9: Work on projects or elective advanced tutorial
- Practical 10: Work on projects or elective advanced tutorial
Day 5 – Discussion & Moving Forward
- Developing your own future past network research projects. Discussion and evaluation
- How to take the next steps in the past networks community – conferences, resources and publications