Readings are in CCLE unless they’re linked here. You can also download this syllabus as a PDF.
Week One: Overview
Key terms: digital humanities, mediation, episteme, techne
1A: October 6
What is digital humanities? What is a digital humanities project?
Lecture slides
1B: October 8
Examples, basic terms, and approaches. Special guest: Dr. Stuart Dunn, King’s College London.
Required readings
- David Berry (2011-06-01). “The Computational Turn: Thinking About the Digital Humanities.” Culture Machine.
- Rachel Deblinger, Memories/Motifs
- Stanford University, Kindred Britain
- Stephanie Evans and Moya Z. Bailey, Swag Diplomacy
Lecture slides; see also this video, which contains the interviews you saw in class
Lab one, October 10
What are the components of the digital final project? Project management overview.
Week Two: Selecting, Sorting, Classifying
Key terms: classification, archive, metadata, n-dimensional space, controlled vocabulary
2A: October 13
How do we decide which information is relevant to a topic and which we can ignore? How do we decide how to divide up this information? What are the implications of these decisions?
Required readings
- Gaffield, Julia. “Haiti’s Declaration of Independence: Digging for Lost Documents in the Archives of the Atlantic World.” The Appendix 2, no. 1 (January 2014)
- Chon Noriega, “Preservation Matters,” Aztlan 30:1 (2005)
- C. Sperberg-McQueen, “Classification and its Structures,” in Schreibman et al., ed., Companion to Digital Humanities (Malden, Mass: Blackwell, 2004)
- University of Sydney, Digital Harlem
2B: October 15
What is metadata? Why do we use metadata standards?
Required reading
- Anne Gilliland, “Setting the Stage,” from Murtha Baca, ed., Introduction to Metadata (Los Angeles: Getty, 2008)
- National Information Standards Organization, “What is Metadata?” (Bethesda, MD: NISO Press, 2004)
Lecture slides and notes
Lab two, October 17
DEADLINE TO DROP CLASS
Divide into groups, brainstorm topics, buy server space, install Omeka.
Week Three: Classification, Continued; Research Techniques
Key terms: ontology, local knowledge
3A: October 20
What are the ideological effects of various systems of classification?
Required reading
- Jessica Seddon Wallack and Ramesh Srinivasan, “Local-Global: Reconciling Mismatched Ontologies in Development Information Systems.” 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2009
- Selections from Bowker and Star, Sorting Things Out (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 1999)
- Alexis C. Madrigal, “How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood,” The Atlantic, January 2, 2014
- Washington State University, Plateau Peoples’ Web Portal
Lecture slides and notes
3B: October 22 | Advanced Research Techniques with Dr. Zoe Borovsky
Required reading
UC Libraries Research Tutorial
Lab three, October 24
Tour of Omeka, discussion of group roles, discussion of one-pager and group charter.
Week Four: From Data to Database
Key terms: database, relational database, data visualization
4A: October 27
Database fundamentals
Required readings:
- Stephen Ramsay, “Databases,” in Companion to Digital Humanities, edited by Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens, and John Unsworth (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Professional, 2004)
- David M. Kroenke and David J. Auer, Database Concepts (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008), chapters one and two
- Emory University, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
4B: October 29
Databases, continued; introduction to data visualization
Required readings:
- Michael Christie, “Computer Databases and Aboriginal Knowledge”
- Data + Design: A Simple Introduction to Preparing and Visualizing Information
- Selections from Isabel Meirelles, Design for Information (Rockport, 2013)
- Micki Kaufman, Quantifying Kissinger
Lab four, October 31
Data visualization techniques
Week Five: Information Visualization, Continued; Text Analysis
Key terms: data, capta, parameterization, unstructured data
5A: November 3
Historicizing and theorizing data visualization
Required reading
- Johanna Drucker, “Humanities Approaches to Graphical Display,” Digital Humanities Quarterly 5, no. 1 (2011)
- Lauren Klein, “The Image of Absence: Archival Silence, Data Visualization, and James Hemings., American Literature 85, no. 4 (December 1, 2013): 661–88
- Tim Sherratt, The Real Face of White Australia
5B: November 5
Introduction to text analysis
Required reading
- William Turkel, Data Mining with Criminal Intent
- Commentary by Andrew Smith
- Emory University, Lincoln Logarithms
Lecture notes and slides
Lab five, November 7
Text analysis techniques
Week Six: Network Analysis
Key terms: network graph, edge, node, bimodal network
6A: November 10 | In-class project work and check-in
6B: November 12 | Lecture by David Shepard
Network analysis
Required reading:
- Scott Weingart, “Demystifying Networks”
- Kieran Healy, Using Metadata to Find Paul Revere
Lab six, November 14
Project check-in
Week Seven: Working through Space
Key terms: GIS, Cartesian coordinates, Mercator projection
7A: November 17 | Lecture by Yoh Kawano
Introduction to GIS
Required reading
- Alan McConchie and Beth Schechter, “Anatomy of a Web Map” (click each slide to advance)
- Jim Detwiler, “Introduction to Web Mapping“
7B: November 19
What cultural and political values are embedded in the way we model space?
Required reading
- Ian Gregory, “Using Geographical Information Systems to Explore Space and Time in the Humanities”
- Sara McLafferty, “Women and GIS: Geosptial Technologies and Feminist Geographies”
Lecture notes and slides
Lab seven, November 21
Working with time and space.
Week Eight: Interfaces
Key terms: interface, materiality
8A: November 24
Interfaces and user experience.
Required reading
- Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. “‘So the Colors Cover the Wires’: Interface, Aesthetics, and Usability,” in A Companion to Digital Humanities, edited by Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens, and John Unsworth, 523–42. (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004).
- Jesse James Garrett, Elements of User Experience
- Ben Shneiderman, Eight Golden Rules
- Evan Bissell and Eric Loyer, The Knotted Line
- Evan Bissell and Eric Loyer, Freedom’s Ring
8B: November 26
No class
No lab this week
Week Nine: 3D Modeling
Key terms: process-based question, product-based question, immersion, theory, praxis
9A: December 1
3D modeling and cross-cultural interfaces.
Required reading
- Lisa Snyder and Scott Friedman. “Software Interface for Real-Time Exploration and Educational Use of Three-Dimensional Computer Models of Historic Urban Environments.” National Endowment for the Humanities, September 16, 2013.
- Diane Favro, “Meaning in Motion. A Personal Walk Through Historical Simulation Modeling at UCLA,” in Visualizing Statues in the Late Antique Forum.
9B: December 3
Where does theory fit into the digital humanities, and where does praxis fit in? How do we think about the way the two fit together? Wait, what is theory anyway?
Required reading
- Johanna Drucker, “Theory as Praxis: The Poetics of Electronic Textuality.” Modernism/Modernity 9, no. 4 (2002): 683–91.
- Natalia Cecire, “Introduction: Theory and the Virtues of Digital Humanities,” Journal of Digital Humanities, March 9, 2012.
Lab nine, December 5
Design meetings, project documentation.
Week Ten: Tying Things Up
NO BLOG POST THIS WEEK
10A: December 8
Review session and project workday
10B: December 10
Final exam in class. Questions.
Lab ten, December 12
Finish final projects, prepare for final presentations
Friday, December 19, 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
Presentations of final projects