The weekly schedule of discussion topics, reading assignments, and tech tool lab sessions. Watch and Read are self explanatory, but Explore means you should skim over the entire collection of articles, projects, or whatever is listed, and then pick a few that grab your attention to read or investigate more fully. Think critically about why you were drawn to those instead of others as you formulate your responses and discussion questions.
*A PDF of this syllabus can be downloaded here, but NB, it will not be updated as frequently as the online version below.
Week 1: Introduction to Digital Humanities
Background
Watch:
- Michael Wesch, The Machine is Us/ing Us
- Michael Wesch, Information R/evolution
Read:
- The Digital Humanities Manifesto 2.0
- Stephen Ramsay, Who’s In and Who’s Out
Explore:
- The New York Times’ series, Humanities 2.0
Tech Tool Lab
Essential Course Tools Overview:
- Course website and WordPress basics
- Social research using Diigo
- Shared bibliography using Zotero
- SketchUp and 3D basics
- Dirt Digital Research Tools
Week 2: How it Works: Digital Projects and the Code at their Heart
Background
Read:
- Johanna Drucker, Analysis of DH Projects
- Matt Kirschenbaum, Hello Worlds: Why Humanities Students Should Learn to Program
- Evan Donahue, A “Hello World” Apart (why humanities students should NOT learn to program)
Explore:
Tech Tool Lab
Under the hood: HTML/CSS/JavaScript 101
- DevTools: inspecting the web
- JSBin online HTML/JavaScript editor
- w3schools tutorials
- Codecademy tutorials
Week 3: Big Data, Repositories, and the Dynamic Web
Background
Read:
- Tim Hitchcock, Academic History Writing and the Headache of Big Data
- Stephen Marche, Literature is not Data: Against Digital Humanities
- Scott Selisker and Holger Syme, In Defense of Data: Responses to Stephen Marche’s “Literature is not Data”
- Stephen Ramsay, “Databases,” A Companion to Digital Humanities
Explore:
Tech Tool Lab
The Database “Back-End”
- Collecting Data, Where and How
- Spreadsheets/Google Sheets
- Omeka.net
- Content Management Systems Compared
- Server-side programming 101
Week 4: Getting More out of Texts
Background
Read:
Explore:
Tech Tool Lab
Structured Markup: XML/CSL
- Editing Zotero styles
- TEI workshop
- Voyant Tools
Week 5: Spatial Humanities I
Background
Read:
- Jo Guldi, What is the Spatial Turn?
- (read the introduction and at least one disciplinary section of interest)
- Anne Kelly Knowles, “GIS and History,” in Anne Kelley Knowles, ed., Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS are Changing Historical Scholarship (2008): 1–20.
Explore:
Tech Tool Lab
Web Mapping 101
- Advanced Google Maps
- CartoDB
- WorldMap
Week 6: Spatial Humanities II
Background
Read:
- Thomas Fisher, Place-Based Knowledge in the Digital Age
- David J. Bodenhamer, Beyond GIS: Geospatial Technologies and the Future of History
Tech Tool Lab
Advanced GIS: To 3D and Beyond?
- ArcGIS
- Google Earth
- 3D Visualization and Data Integration
Week 7: Networks of Text and Space
Background
Read:
- Scott Weingart, Demystifying Networks, Parts I & II
Explore:
Tech Tool Lab
Network Analysis 101
- Google Fusion Tables
- Gephi Quick Start Tutorial
- NodeXL
Week 8: Seeing Data in New Ways
Background
Read:
- Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information
- John Theibault, Visualizations and Historical Arguments
Explore:
Tech Tool Lab
The Visual Display of Quantitative (and Qualitative!) Information
Week 9: Group Work to Finalize Projects and Presentations
Background
Prepare:
- Your final project materials
- Your complete Zotero bibliography of sources
Tech Tool Lab
Packaging and Prettifying a Project
Finalize projects and comment on the “Project Gallery”
Week 10: Project Presentations
Background
Prepare:
- A “Pecha Kucha” style presentation of your final project:
- 20 slides, for 20 seconds each (6:40 total), following the 1/1/5 rule: at least 1 image per slide, each used only 1 time, and less than 5 words per slide
Tech Tool Lab
Presentations and Publication!
- Now put those skills to use and join a project on the DH Commons!
