The weekly schedule of discussion topics, reading assignments, and hands-on activities to be completed before each class session. “Watch” and “Read” should be 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 think of discussion questions.
“Lab” contains a link to the lesson plan for each class period. These links will go live just before class each day, when they will give you an introduction to the topic, in-class exercises and the specifications for that week’s Blog posts and Lab Assignments.
Week 1: Introduction to Digital Humanities
1.1 Introductions
- Introductions
- Syllabus
- Digital Making 101
Lab: Digital Creation: 3D basics
1.2 What are the Digital Humanities? Who are the Digital Humanists?
Read:
- Burdick et al. “One: Humanities to Digital Humanities,” in Digital_Humanities (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012), 1-26.
- Also available as an Ebook through Carleton library (log in for access!)
- Debbie Chachra, “Why I Am Not a Maker,” The Atlantic, January 23, 2015.
- Moya Z. Bailey, All the Digital Humanists Are White, All the Nerds Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave
Lab: Defining Your Place in DH
Assignments
- Blog (due by end of day Friday)
- Defining DH reflection
- Lab (due by end of day Sunday)
- Model an object you know well in Fusion 360
- Discussion (due by end of day Monday)
- Read and post comments on two of your classmates posts — also feel free to respond to any on yours!
Week 2: How it Works: DH Projects and the Code at their Heart
2.1 Digital Humanities Projects 101
Pick One: Read or Watch
- Miriam Posner, How did They Make That? (blog post)
- Miriam Posner, How Did They Make That? (Video)
Explore:
2.2 Web Development Fundamentals
Read:
- 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)
Lab: Web Development Fundamentals: HTML/CSS and Programming 101
- DevTools: inspecting the web
Assignments
- Blog (due by end of day Friday)
- Reverse Engineering a DH project
- Lab (due by end of day Sunday)
- HTML Dog Tutorial and Reflection
- Discussion (due by end of day Monday)
- Read and post comments on two of your classmates posts — also feel free to respond to any on yours!
Week 3: Data Management and Data Visualization
3.1 Humanities Data and how to manage it
- Collecting Data, Where and How
- Content Management Systems
- Setting up your own server, cPanel 101
Guest presentation by Em Palencia on navigating your server space in cPanel
Read:
- 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”
Lab: Humanities Data
3.2 Data Viz 101
Guest lecture by Lin Winton, Director of the Quantitative Resource Center at Carleton College
Read:
- D’Ignazio, C., & Klein, L, Chapter 4, “What Gets Counted Counts,” In Data Feminism (2020).
- (optional) Edward Tufte, “Escaping Flatland” in Envisioning Information (1990): 12–35.
Lab: Basic Data Viz principles
- Cleaning Data
- Exploratory Data Analysis
Assignments
- Blog (extension to end of day Sunday)
- Exploratory Data Visualization with online tools
- Lab (due by end of day Sunday)
- Setting up your own server and WordPress site
- Discussion (due by end of day Monday)
- Read and post comments on two of your classmates posts — also feel free to respond to any on yours!
Week 4: Data Analysis and the Archives Project
4.1 Text Analysis and Network Analysis
Pick One to Read
- Natalie Houston, Text Analysis
- Scott Weingart, Demystifying Networks, Parts I & II
Lab: Text Analysis and Network Analysis
4.2 Archives Project Launch
- Introduction to archives class project
- Class meets at college archives (Libe 170)
- Guest presentation by David Bliss
Lab: Modeling Objects and Photogrammetry, Part 1
Assignments
- Blog (due by end of day Friday)
- Network analysis DH project reflection
- Lab (due by end of day Sunday)
- Object photographs and Omeka entry
- Discussion (due by end of day Monday)
- Read and post comments on two of your classmates posts — also feel free to respond to any on yours!
Week 5: ARCHIVES PROJECT: 3D Humanities
5.1 Immersive Environments and 3D Simulation
Pick one to Read:
- David J. Bodenhamer, Beyond GIS: Geospatial Technologies and the Future of History
- Diane Favro, “Se Non È Vero, È Ben Trovato (If Not True, It Is Well Conceived): Digital Immersive Reconstructions of Historical Environments,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 71, no. 3 (2012): 273–77.
Lab: Virtual Humanities
- Making models
5.2 Analog to Digital and Back: 3D Printing and Fabrication
Explore:
- Ed Triplett, The Book of Fortresses
Lab: Analog to digital and back
- Model Cleaning
- NetFabb
- Shapeways and the Maker Space
Assignments
- Blog (due by end of day Sunday)
- Process post on your experience with archive project photogrammetry
- Lab (due by end of day Sunday)
- Archive photogrammetry model
- Discussion (due by end of day Monday)
- Read and post comments on two of your classmates posts — also feel free to respond to any on yours!
Week 6: Spatial Humanities
6.1 GIS/Mapping 101
Read:
- Eric Deluca and Sara Nelson, “Lying with Maps,” in Mapping, Society, and Technology, ed. Steven Manson (UMN Libraries Publishing, 2017).
Lab: DH Mapping Projects and Historical Mapping
- Georeferencing historical maps
6.2 Web Mapping 101
Read:
- Alan McConchie and Beth Schechter, Anatomy of a Webmap (use arrows to advance or go back)
Lab: WebMapping 101
- ArcGIS Online
Assignments
- Blog (due by end of day Friday)
- Georectifying and spatial humanities project impressions
- Lab (due by end of day Sunday)
- Campus map exercise and post
- Discussion (due by end of day Monday)
- Read and post comments on two of your classmates posts — also feel free to respond to any on yours!
Week 7: Putting it all together
7.1 Data Cleaning / Final Project launching
- Final project brainstorming
Lab: Cleaning data using Open Refine
7.2 Midterm Exam
Assignments
- Blog (None, free credit)
- Lab (due by end of day Sunday)
- MIDTERM EXAM
- Discussion (due by end of day Monday)
- Read and post comments on two of your classmates posts — also feel free to respond to any on yours!
Week 8: Project Work
8.1 Final Project Pitch and Work Session
- Finalizing projects and groups
- Final Project Pitch and Team Charter (due Friday)
Lab: Final Project Work
8.2 DA&H Across Campus
- Guest presentation by Sarah Calhoun (Digital Humanities Librarian)
- Final project work, sources
Assignments
- Project Component 1 (due by end of day Friday)
- Final Project Pitch and Team Charter
- Project Component 2 (due by end of day Sunday)
- Final Project Source Documentation and Update
- Discussion (due by end of day Monday)
- Read and post comments on two groups’ posts — also feel free to respond to any on yours!
Week 9: Group Work to Finalize Projects and Presentations
9.1 Group Project Work
- Work on websites and interactive data visualizations
Lab: Final Project Data Visualizations and Presentation
9.2 Group Project Work
- Continue work on group visualizations and websites
- Preparation for final presentations
Assignments
- Blog (optional make-up credit, due Friday)
- Project Component 3 (due by end of day Sunday)
- Data Visualization
- Discussion (due by end of day Monday)
- Read and post comments on two of your classmates posts — also feel free to respond to any on yours!
Week 10: Project Presentations
10.1 Final Project Presentations
- Draft of project website due by 5pm
- 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
Final version of project website due by last day of Finals Week (11/20)
Please log into the moodle site and fill out
- the final tech familiarity assessment and
- final course evaluation
