About

Instructors:

• Andressa Macena Maia

• Dr. Scott Caddy

Graduate Student Instructors: 

• Manish Kumar

• Eliza Breder

• Rebecca Baugh

• Rosa M Norton

• Hannah Ellis

• Anooj Kansara

Course Administrator: Tom Van Nuenen

This is a course offered at the University of California Berkeley during summers.

NOTE: DIGHUM 100 is a synchronous course. Active and live participation is required and expected in this class. This class cannot be taken asynchronously.

Course Description:

In this course, we will evaluate a variety of digital humanities projects through theoretical scholarship in the field, in order to critically assess the value of the new knowledge that is being generated, and to weigh that knowledge in terms of traditional humanities methods.  We will explore the fundamental arguments that are being advanced about these new methods and how they interact with humanities’ interpretive underpinnings. This course will prepare students to apply digital methods in ethical, reflective, and responsible ways—understanding the potentials of the digital within the humanities.

Learning Outcomes

Analyze digital humanities' development from the history of new media and humanities computing

Recognize debates within the digital humanities and the ways they structure contemporary academic discourse

Provide students hands-on experience collaborating on, creating, and critiquing digital humanities projects

Develop a familiarity with a range of digital humanities projects, as well as the ability to evaluate the tools and methods involved in creating those projects

Identify several methodological and critical approaches which distinguish digital humanities in teaching, research, and engagement contexts

Engage with a variety of digital humanities tools in order to choose the most appropriate technology to facilitate different work in different situations

Assignments and Projects

Readings/Annotations

Prior to each meeting, you will have 1-2 short readings to prepare for our class discussions. Each reading is given a due date (in each module) and has been uploaded through Hypothesis. Using Hypothesis, you are required to write at least two annotations per day (some days, there will be more than one reading, so I would recommend one annotation per reading). Each annotation is worth 2.5 points for a total of 5 points per day. 

Do not despair if you miss some days. The three lowest annotation scores will be dropped at the end of the summer session.

Annotations will be graded holistically based on the following criteria: relevance, clarity, and connection to other course material and academic experiences. I am looking for genuine insight into portions of the readings and, more importantly, how that insight could benefit others in the class. The annotations are meant to collectively analyze the texts. [20% of final grade]

Attendance and Participation

As this is a synchronous course, your attendance is expected and mandatory. Having said that, you are also allowed three unexcused absences before missing courses will impact your overall grade. Participation is also expected, though can take various forms: comments and questions during lectures, participating in small and large group discussions, responding to Hypothesis notations, or otherwise showing consistent engagement in the course. [10% of final grade]

Weekly Assignments

These are weekly short papers that will be due on Fridays (11:59 pm PT) of each week. They are designed to help you think independently about DH studies, your position in the world of data science/digital humanities, and investigate current DH projects (see the DH spotlight section of each module). The prompts are designed to be "open," so you will have several directions to take your responses. These will be graded with rubrics emphasizing clarity or language use, relevance to the prompt, application and understanding of course material (including references to assigned readings), and clear engagement and thinking about the course material, concepts, tools, and / or methods. [20% of final grade]

NOTE: Submission of late writing assignments without a granted extension will be penalized 10% per day.

DH Theory Application

Prior to the Group Digital Humanities Project, you will submit a 3-4 page paper where you analyze and critique a digital humanities project utilizing at least two core readings, theories, or approaches in support of your overall claim. This claim should indicate the cultural, technical, or otherwise valuable contribution this project makes to the field of digital humanities, and / or a sub-field (like history, literature, data science, or environmental studies). The goal of this paper is to properly apply our course theory to interacting with a digital humanities project or artifact and consider ways to implement the theories, methods, and approaches into your final group project. [20% of final grade]

Group Digital Humanities Project

The final project for this course is a group digital humanities project. This project will entail choosing a topic or issue to explore (using an open-access dataset), formulate a narrative based on your selected data points, and create a web-based DH project, which includes an introduction, group member bios, source materials, and interactive visualizations. Your projects will be presented as a group video recording that details the major aspects of the front-end of the project and your overall process working with the data to form your analysis and conclusions. [30% of final grade]

Final Grading Scheme (out of %)

A+: 100-97

A: 93-96

A-: 90-92

B+: 87-89

B: 86-83

B-: 80-82

C+: 79-77

C: 76-73

C-: 72-70

D+: 69-67

D: 66-63

D-: 62-60

F: 59-0