Fall Teaching: Digital Humanities

My colleague Ed Whitley and I are co-teaching an Introduction to Digital Humanities course for the first time this fall.

In some ways the course looks a little like other Intro to DH courses taught by colleagues elsewhere (and we consulted syllabi by people like Johanna Drucker and Alan Liu while designing our own). But we're also diverging in some significant ways from traditional Intro to DH courses. For one thing, Ed in particular has a great deal of experience building digital archives, and we'll emphasize digital archives and digital collections a great deal in the first weeks of the course. (I am also working on a digital archive project on "The Kiplings and India," as I mentioned in a previous post). 

Secondly, we have put in a pretty robust social justice emphasis in our approach to DH, not as an afterthought or token presence, but in the front and center. The first major project we'll work on together is a collaborative edition of Claude McKay's 1922 book of poetry, Harlem Shadows. And we'll come back to social justice, #TransformDH, and #DHPoco types of issues regularly in other units. We're especially pleased to integrate our class with a couple of visiting speakers to campus, including Johanna Drucker (September 15), and Vincent Brown (November 12). 

Finally, in lieu of final projects (conventional research papers), we'll ask students to do four smaller projects and then revise and extend those projects at the end of the term in the form of final portfolios. 

All that said, the syllabus below is still pretty experimental -- we're not sure yet which essays will "work" and which might be less effective in connecting with students. If and when we do this again, it might look different. Feedback, suggestions, and criticisms welcome (including the "how can you *not* have X?! variety). 

Preliminary Calendar
Introduction
Tu August 25
Basic Introduction 
--Readings--
-Matt Gold, “Digital Humanities” (CourseSite)
Th August 27
Defining the Field  

--Websites--

--Readings--
Tu September 1
Debating the Field  
--Readings--
Unit I: Digitally Curated Texts
Th September 3
Textual Scholarship and Editorial Theory 
--Readings--
-G. Thomas Tanselle, “The Varieties of Scholarly Editing” (CourseSite)
-D. F. McKenzie, “Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts” (CourseSite)
-Jerome McGann, from A Critique of Modern Textual Criticism (CourseSite)

Due: DH Stakes paper (3-5 pages)
Tu September 8
Digital Archives: Theory and Practice 
--Websites--

--Readings--
Th September 10
Digital Archives: Case Studies I  
-- Websites --

--Readings --
-Ed Folsom, “Database as Genre: The Epic Transformation of Archives” (see also these responses to Folsom’s article, particularly those by McGann and McGill)
-Ed Folsom and Ken Price, from Re-Scripting Walt Whitman (“Intimate Script and the New American Bible” and “What Whitman Left Us”)
-Roger Whitson and Jason Whitaker, chapter 1 from William Blake and the Digital Humanities (CourseSite)
Tu September 15
Johanna Drucker visit. 1:10-2pm: Regular class. 2-3:30pm: conversation with Johanna Drucker (please review her DH 101 Coursebook). 4pm Drucker lecture in Linderman 200, “Should Humanists Visualize Knowledge?” (required -- she is a major figure in Digital Humanities scholarship!)

Digital Archives: Case Studies II   
--Websites--
-Claude McKay’s “Harlem Shadows” (Digital Edition by Chris Forster & Roopika Risam). We’ll be doing collaborative hands-on work to expand and improve on this archive (contributions due September 29). Visit the site, visit Chris Forster’s Github site containing XML/TEI version of the McKay text, read Deep’s lecture notes on Claude McKay.

--Readings--
Th September 17
Continue discussion of Digital Archives Case Studies II from Tuesday (40 minutes) 




TEI and XML (30 minutes) 
--Videos--

--Websites--
--Readings--


Short Assignment: Analyze small chunks of XML from the Whitman Archive and Harlem Shadows and compare what this reveals about the editorial practice of each site. Assignment due Tuesday 9/22.
Tu September 22
Work on Projects 
We will do a hands-on session focusing on individual student contributions related  to the digital edition of Claude McKay’s “Harlem Shadows” for this session. Depending on what you’re working on, you may need to read critical or biographical materials related to McKay’s life and work and write up short contextual or interpretive essays that will eventually be included in a version of the site that will later go ‘live’ (possibly on Tuesday 9/29). (A large amount of scholarly and biographical material has been scanned and posted on CourseSite.)

The expectation is that students will have read relevant material related to their subtopic vis a vis McKay before this session, and have ideas and questions about how to proceed. (Or a draft) We will talk more about “building” on Thursday 9/24 and on Tuesday 9/29.
Th September 24
Content Management Systems 
Hands-on introduction to WordPress (Annie Johnson)
Before coming to class complete the prework listed here.

--Websites--
-The Vault at Pfaff’s (Drupal + CONTENTdm)
-Freedom’s Ring (Scalar)

--Other Platforms to discuss/explore--
Tu September 29
Contributions to “Harlem Shadows” digital edition due -- in-class presentations.

Student presentation and collaborative / group self-critique of our collaborative version of “Harlem Shadows.” What value have we been able to add to the site? What else could we add / what are we missing? How could we improve architecture / user experience? What do we hope different kinds of visitors  to this site might learn from their experience?

Based on feedback you receive from your peers and from us, plan to revise your contributions for the final portfolios due in December.
Unit II: Digitally Manipulated Texts
Th October 1
Reading, Scale, Text-as-Data  
--Readings--
Tu October 6
Distant Reading and Data Mining 
--Websites--

--Readings--
- Stephen Ramsay, “An Algorithmic Criticism," in Reading Machines (CourseSite)
-Franco Moretti, chapter(s) # from Distant Reading (CourseSite)
-Matthew Jockers, chapter(s) #from Macroanalysis (CourseSite)
Th October 8
Topic Modeling 
--Websites--

--Readings--
Tu October 13
Pacing Break: No class
Th October 15
Stylometry  
--Readings--
-Stephen Ramsay, Introduction to Reading Machines (CourseSite)
--Tools--
--Case Study 1: Syuzhet Controversy--
-Matthew Jockers, “Syuzhet” Announcement: http://www.matthewjockers.net/2015/02/02/syuzhet/)
-Annie Swafford,  “Problems with the Syuzhet Package” https://annieswafford.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/syuzhet/
--Case Study 2: JK Rowling and “Cuckoo’s Calling” --
Tu October 20
Visualization 
--Websites--

--Tools--

--Readings--
Th October 22
Maps 
--Projects--
-Digital Yoknapatawpha (watch demonstration videos)

--Readings--
Tu October 27
Networks 
--Websites--
-The Vault at Pfaff’s network visualization prototype

--Tools--
-vis.js
-Gephi

--Readings--
-Dan Edelstein, “Networks in History: Data-driven tools for analyzing relationships across time” NEH application (CourseSite)
-Franco Moretti, "Network Theory, Plot Analysis" (CourseSite)
-NEH grant (CourseSite)

Th October 29
Hands-on session on text analysis. Collaboration on student work in progress. 
--Readings--
-Lauren F. Klein, “Hacking the Field: Teaching Digital Humanities with Off-the-Shelf Tools” (CourseSite)

Tu November 3
Small scale text analysis project due: in-class presentations. We will ask you to use one of the “off the shelf” text analysis tools we discussed over the preceding three weeks. Create a useable body of text (i.e., a text file) and run either a statistical or visual analysis of that text oriented towards answering a particular question you wish to answer about that text. Give us your results, and a short essay describing your goals and assessment of the results.
Unit III: Born-Digital Texts
Th November 5
Social Media and New Scholarly Forms 
--Websites--
-Explore Twitter hashtags: #DH, #transformDH, #dhpoco

--Readings--
-Kathleen Fitzpatrick, from Planned Obsolescence (CourseSite)
Tu November 10
Electronic Literature I 

--Primary Texts--
-Sasha West, “Zoology
-Christine Wilks, “Underbelly
-J.R. Carpenter, “Entre Ville
-Stephanie Strickland, True North

--Platforms and Tools--
-Storyspace (no longer viable)

--Secondary Readings--
-Margie Luesebrink & Stephanie Strickland, “Seven Types of Interface” (CourseSite)
Th November 12
Vincent Brown visit  (Alison Kanosky’s class will join us)
--Website--

--Readings--
Carefully read the project description:

Vincent Brown: Lecture at 4:00 pm in Linderman 200. (Required!)
Tu November 17
Electronic Literature II 
--Primary Texts--
-J.R. Carpenter, In Absentia
-Jim Andrews, “Stir Fry Texts
-Possibly other authors:  Michael Joyce, MD Coverley, Stuart Moulthrop, Deena Larsen, Steve Tomasula, Donna Leishman, Stephanie Strickland, John Cayley, Juliet Davis.

--Secondary Readings--
-Eugenio Tisselli, “Why I have stopped creating E-Lit
-Sandy Baldwin, “Ping Poetics
Th November 19
Electronic Literature III 

James McAdams: Guest lecture/ class leader

--Primary Texts--
-Zoe Quinn, “Depression Quest
-Robin Sloan, “Fish: A Tap Essay
-Sharon Daniel, “Public Secrets
Tu November 24
Hands-on collaborative session devoted to student electronic literature projects: interpretive essay (for the I Love E-poetry site) or a work of creative electronic literature using Twine, Stir Fry Poetry code, or other tools.
Th November 26
Thanksgiving: No class
Tu December 1
Presentations of student work on electronic literature.
Th December 3
Hands-on session
Fr December 11
Final portfolios due