Syllabus
This is the syllabus for AL340/AL890 “Digital Humanities Seminar” Fall 2015 at Michigan State University coordinated by Professor A. Sean Pue. Please also see the course Guidelines for information about requirements, grades, and so on.
The class meets on Fridays from 9:10 a.m.-12 p.m.
This syllabus will change throughout the semester, so please check back. It was last updated on January 15, 2015.
Schedule
January 16: Welcome, Overview, and Setup
Location: B110H Wells Hall
Goals:
- meet each other
- discuss our prior knowledge
- discuss our expectations for the class
- review the requirements and learning goals of the class
- set up Twitter and Github accounts
- learn our hashtags (#al340 and #msudh)
- install TweetDeck
January 23: Digital Humanities is…? and Introduction to Servers, the Internet, and Databases
Location: B110H Wells Hall
Tasks Due (Before Class):
- Before doing the reading, on D2L write 250-500 words (1-2 double-spaced pages; more is fine if you are on a roll) about what “digital,” “humanities,” and “digital humanities” mean to you.
- Read Digital_Humanities: Chapters 1, 2, and “A Short Guide to the Digital_Humanities.”
- Submit two discussion questions on D2L about the reading that we can discuss together in class. Give page numbers. One question can be specific/factual about something you do not understand, and the other can be a more general topic arising out of the reading. You do not need to write answers, just the questions. Bring a copy of your questions to class as well.
January 30: Detractors of DH and Introduction to Servers, the Internet, and Databases (continued)
Location: B110H Wells Hall
Guest Lecturer: Professor Matthew Handelman (German, DH)
Tasks Due (Before Class):
- Read Kirsh, “The Limits of Digital Humanities”
- Read “Digital Humanities Have Great Promise”,
- Read Chun and Rhody, “Working the Digital Humanities”
- Read short excerpt from Adorno and Horkheimer, The Culture Industry
- Submit two discussion questions on D2L about the reading (same instructions as above for 1/23).
- Complete the Hello World! Week 3 Task
- Complete the short quiz on the Hello World assignment on D2L.
February 6: Data Visualization and Timeline Creation
Location: Wells B110H
Tasks Due (Before Class):
- Read Friendly, “A Brief History of Data Visualization”
- Read Fekete, “The Value of Information Visualization”
- Read Heer, “A Tour through the Visualization Zoo”
- Submit two discussion questions on D2L about the reading (same instructions as above for 1/23).
Guest Lecturer: Bobby L. Smiley (@bobbylsmiley) (library, DH)
Slides are here: Information Visualization Slides
February 13: Data Management and Curation
Location: Wells B110H
Tasks Due (Before Class):
Guest Lecturers: Aaron Collie (library, DH) (@aaroncollie) Thomas Padilla (@thomasgpadilla) (library, DH)
Humanities Data Curation Slides are here
Research Data Curation Slides are here
February 20: Introduction to Digital History and Digital Collections with Omeka
Guest Lecturer: Brandon Locke (@brandontlocke)
Location: LEADR (112 Old Horticulture)
Tasks Due (Before Class):
- Read “What is Digital History”
- Read “Archives in Context as Context”
- Read the first few pages of “Understanding Metadata” and save the remainder as a reference
Slides are here
February 27: Project Management, the Creativity Exploratory, and Final Project Overview
Guest Lecturer: Kristen Mapes (@kmapesy)
- Finish Digital_Humanities: Read Chapters 3, 4, and “A Short Guide to the Digital_Humanities” (again)
- Post two discussion questions to D2L
- In D2L, post the URL to the Omeka repository you created last week. Refine it as well and be creative. Include a short description.
Location: CE (Creativity Exploratory, 305 Linton Hall)
Slides are here: Project Management Slides (some documents are private, so use your MSU id to access)
March 6: Network Analysis
Guest Lecturer: Thomas Padilla (@thomasgpadilla) (library, DH)
- Before class, read: Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Chapter 1:Introduction, Network Science
- Read: Claire Lemercier. Formal network methods in history: why and how? . This version might be slightly revised before publication in Georg Fertig (ed.), Social Networks, 2011.
- Install on your laptop Cytoscape
- Post two discussion questions to D2L
- In preparation for the midterm, post to D2L up to five identifications and 3 short answer questions based on your assigned class. (See D2L for assignment.)
Location: REAL Classroom, 3 West, Main Library
Slides are here: Network Analysis Slides
March 20: DH and Accessibility; Text Analysis
Guest Lecturer: Ranti Junus (@ranti) (library)
- Before class read/view:
- George H. Williams, “Disability, Universal Design, and the Digital Humanities,” Debates in Digital Humanities. University of Minnesota Press.
- Digital Collections, Data Visualization, and Accessibility: What to Do?
- How a blind student tried to access MSU Libraries e-resources page using a screen reader (5 minutes video)
- This is a test Ranti Junus did for our library e-resources page with my blind student. The purpose of this video is to show the mental model used by those with visual impairment when constructing how the page is organized, compare to the sighted users.
- Ranti Junus, “Tools I use when performing accessibility assessment”
- The readings below are not required, but would be useful if any of the seminar participants would like to explore more about accessibility:
- Before class install Python on your computer, either Anaconda or Enthought Canopy. Anaconda is probably the easiest distribution to install. This may take some time. Python is also available on the lab computers. Also install NLTK.
- Before class read:
- Quantitative Analysis and Literary Studies
- If you have time: Algorithmic Criticism
- Post two discussion questions on D2L.
- Write a paragraph on D2L about what you like to do for the final project. Respond to at least one of your other classmates posts and feel to phrase your post as a dialog.
March 23: Midterm Due
March 27: Copyright, Remix, and Remediation
Guest Lecturer: Danielle DeVoss
- Reading: Bound by Law
- Reading: Digital Humanities Manifesto 2.0
April 3: Moving Image/Image Analysis
Guest Lecturers: Thomas Padilla (@thomasgpadilla) (library, DH); Ryan Edge (@rynedg) (library)
Location: REAL Classroom, 3 West, Main Library
- Reading: Lev Manovich, Visualizing Vertoz
- Reading: Virginia Kuhn, MOVIE: Large Scale Automated Analysis of MOVing ImagEs
- Post two discussion questions on D2L.
April 10: Fieldtrip to Lansing Makers Network (@LansingMakers) and Arduinos!
Guest Lecturer: Brian Adams (CAL)
Location: Lansing Makes Network, 502 E Grand River Ave
- Watch: Dale Dougherty, We are Makers
- Reading Arduino’s Massimo Banzi: How We Helped Make The Maker Movement
- Reading The Relevance of Remaking
- Optional Reading The Maker Movement Manifesto, pg 1-30