Seminar Meetings: W 6:00–8:30 PM Hardin Hall 230 | Professor Douglas Seefeldt Clemson University Department of History Hardin Hall 006 wseefel@clemson.edu http://dougseefeldt.net | Office Hours: W 10:00-11:00 AM (or by appointment) |
“…history may be better suited to digital technology than any other humanistic discipline. Changes in our field far removed from anything to do with computers have helped create a situation in history where the advantages of computers can seem appealing, and perhaps even necessary. At the same time, changes in information technology, far removed from any consideration of its possible uses for our discipline, have made it possible for us to think of new ways to approach the past. The new technologies seem tailor-made for history, a match for the growing bulk and complexity of our ever more self-conscious practice, efficient vehicles to connect with larger and more diverse audiences.”
– Edward L. Ayers
“The Pasts and Futures of Digital History” (1999)
COURSE OBJECTIVES
What is “Digital History”? How has the so-called “digital turn” influenced the ways we as historians conceive, research, design, and communicate our scholarship? In this graduate seminar, students will examine these and other questions in both theory and practice by reading leading critical works, critically reviewing cutting edge digital history projects, and experimenting with a variety of new media tools. Students will be expected to actively participate in weekly seminar discussions and hands-on labs focused on theories and methods of doing digital history and focus on exploring the potential for using digital tools to interrogate and explain scholarly findings in a digital environment. One key course objective is that students will develop an awareness of the opportunities and challenges inherent in researching and communicating one’s scholarship using a variety of digital media. The skills that you will develop will serve you throughout your graduate program whether or not you produce print or digital forms of scholarly communication.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Active Participation
Graduate student attendance at weekly seminar meetings is expected, whether we are meeting in person or online, therefore, attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class. Please notify the instructor in advance should you need to miss a meeting. All students are expected to actively participate in all facets of the seminar via thoughtful contributions to the weekly seminar discussions and hands-on labs.
24% Reading Reflections (120 points)
Throughout the semester, each student will submit twelve 2-page reading reflections to the course Canvas site before our seminar meetings. The evaluation criteria, based on a 10-point scale, will include timely completion and the quality of content. These reflections will also serve as the basis for our weekly seminar discussions. Late reflections will be marked down two points per day that they are overdue. No work will be accepted more than one week late without prior permission.
20% Project Blog Creation and Posts (100 points)
Install and setup a WordPress blog on your Reclaim Hosting account and make 12 posts to your academic blog. Ten posts will be on the digital history tool exercises and graded on a 10-point scale.
20% Book Essay (100 points)
Four-Five-page essay on Blevins, Paper Trails as an exemplar of digital historical scholarship.
25% Digital History Tools Website (125 points)
Web-based exhibit of your engagement with the tool exercises and relevant methodologies using WordPress on your Reclaim Hosting account.
10% Pecha Kucha Tools Presentation (50 points)
Pecha KuchaPresentation on your semester-long exploration of the suite of digital history tools.
1% Self-Evaluation (5 points)
A self-evaluation completed at the end of the semester
REQUIRED TEXT
(Please note that additional weekly readings will be posted to the course Canvas site):
- Blevins, Cameron. Paper Trails: The US Post and the Making of the American West. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021 (also available electronically via Clemson Libraries’ Pascal System).
COURSE SCHEDULE & ASSIGNMENTS
Please complete the readings and assignments prior to each seminar meeting, as we will discuss the material as a group. I reserve the right to change the schedule as necessary and will give you notice when I do via Canvas announcement. Note: [C] indicates that the assigned readings are accessible via the course Canvas site.
W 8/23: Digital Scholarship and New Forms of Scholarly Communication
Readings:
- Price, “Edition, Project, Database, Archive, Thematic Research Collection: What’s in a Name?” Digital Humanities Quarterly, vol. 3, no. 3 (2009). [C]
- McPherson, “Scaling Vectors: Thoughts on the Future of Scholarly Communication,” Volume 13, Issue 2: Reimagining the University Press (2010). [C]
- Gross and Harmon, “Internet Humanities Essays and Books: Seeing and Hearing Anew,” chpt. 3, The Internet Revolution in the Sciences and Humanities (2016), 52-87. [C]
Writing Assignment: Canvas Introduction Ice Breaker Discussion Post [C]
Lab: Hands-on exploration of digital scholarship exemplars [C]
W 8/30: What is Digital History?
Readings:
- Crymble, “The Origin Myths of Computing in Historical Research,” chpt. 1, Technology and the Historian: Transformations in the Digital Age (2021), 17-45. [C]
- Burton_American Digital History_2005. [C]
- Robertson, “The Differences between Digital Humanities and Digital History,” chpt. 25, Debates in the Digital Humanities 2016 (2016).
- Tanaka, “Pasts in a Digital Age,” Part 1, Writing History in the Digital Age (2013), 35-46.
- Robertson and Mullen, “Arguing with Digital History: Patterns of Historical Interpretation,” Journal of Social History 54, no. 4 (2021): 1005–1022.
Writing Assignment: Reading Reflection #1 [C]
Lab: Hands-on exploration of digital history exemplars [C]
W 9/6: Disseminating Digital History
Readings:
- Cordell, “Creating and Maintaining a Professional Presence Online: A Roundup and Reflection,” ProfHacker, The Chronicle of Higher Education (2012).
- Varin, “Managing Your Digital Self,” AHA Perspectives on History (2014).
- Marshall, “How to Curate Your Digital Identity as an Academic,” Careers in Academe, The Chronicle of Higher Education (2015).
- Cummings and Jarrett, “Only Typing? Informal Writing, Blogging, and the Academy,” Part 7, Writing History in the Digital Age (2013), 246-58.
- Perry, “3 Rules of Academic Blogging,” Advice, The Chronicle of Higher Education (2015).
- Fea, “Twitter and the Historical Profession,” The American Historian (2018).
- Rosenzweig, “Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past?” Journal of American History (2006).
- Cronon, “Scholarly Authority in a Wikified World,” From the President, AHA Perspectives on History (2012).
- Wolff, “The Historian’s Craft, Popular Memory, and Wikipedia,” Part 2, Writing History in the Digital Age (2013), 64-74.
Writing Assignment: Reading Reflection #2 [C]
Tool Exercise: TE1: Wikipedia & Blog Post #1
Lab: Reclaim Hosting account, projects blog setup, X (Twitter), H-NET Listservs, LinkedIn, Academia, ORCHID, Google Scholar, etc.
W 9/13: The Programming Historian [1999]: HTML & CSS
Readings:
- Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web, chpts 1, 12, 14, & Glossary. [C]
- Web Programming: From HTML to AJAX.
- HTML, Codecademy.
- CSS, Codecademy.
Writing Assignment: Reading Reflection #3 [C]
Tool Exercise & Lab: TE2: Codecademy HTML & CSS tutorials; Blog post #2 [after lab]
W 9/20: Spatial History, Part I: Spatial Analysis
Reading Assignment:
- Blevins, Paper Trails: The US Post and the Making of the American West. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021 [entire].
- Writing Assignment: Essay on Paper Trails & Gossamer Network [C]
W 9/27: Spatial History, Part II: Story Maps & Spatial Narratives
Readings:
- White, “What is Spatial History?” (2010).
- Bodenhamer, Deep Maps & Spatial Narratives, Introduction & Chpt 1 (2015). [C]
- Travis, Abstract Machine: Humanities GIS, chpts 1-3 (2015). [C]
Writing Assignment: Reading Reflection #4 [C]
Tool Exercise & Lab: TE3: Esri Story Maps; Blog post #3 [after lab]
W 10/4: Glut: The Impact of the Digital Turn on Information Archives
Readings:
- Brin and Page_The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine_1998. [C]
- Messer-Kruse_How Google Scrambled the Academic Mind_2019. [C]
- Abby Smith, “Why Digitize?” (1999).
- Thompson, “Why don’t Archivists Digitize Everything?” ARCHIVES @ PAMA (2017).
- Prescott and Hughes, “Why Do We Digitize? The Case for Slow Digitization,” Archives Journal (September 2018).
- Rosenzweig, “Scarcity or Abundance? Preserving the Past in a Digital Era,” The American Historical Review, 108, no. 3, (June 2003): 735–762
- Crane, “What Do You Do with a Million Books?” (2006).
- Denbo, “Data Overload: Web Archives and the Challenges of Scale” AHA Perspectives on History, (May 2019).
Writing Assignment: Reading Reflection #5 [C]
Tool Exercise: TE4: Tropy; Blog post #4
Lab: Searching Strategies: Archives and Special Collections
W 10/11: Researching in the Digital Age
Readings:
- Chepesiuk_JSTOR and Electronic Archiving_2000. [C]
- Spinella_JSTOR and the Changing Digital Landscape_2008. [C]
- Solberg_Googling the Archive Digital Tools and the Practice of History_2012. [C]
- Milligan, “Illusionary Order: Online Databases, Optical Character Recognition, and Canadian History, 1997-2010” The Canadian Historical Review 94, no. 4 (2013), 540-69.
- Putnam, “The Transnational and the Text-Searchable: Digitized Sources and the Shadows They Cast,” The American Historical Review, 121, no. 2 (April 2016) 377-402.
- Reidsma_Masked by Trust: Bias in Library Discovery- Chpt. 5, “Bias in Library Discovery” (2019): 117-146.
- Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, Preface, Introduction & Chpt. 8 “One-Size Fits Men” (2019). [C]
Writing Assignment: Reading Reflection #6 [C]
Tool Exercise & Lab: TE5: Zotero; Blog post #5 [after lab]
W 10/18: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production, Part I: Data Visualization
Readings:
- Jessop_Digital Visualization as a Scholarly Activity_2008. [C]
- Sinclair, Ruecker, and Radzikowska, “Information Visualization for Humanities Scholars,” Literary Studies in the Digital Age_2013. [C]
- Tufte_Visual and Statistical Thinking_1997. [C]
- Drucker_Graphical Approaches to the Digital Humanities_2016. [C]
- Graham et al, Exploring Big Historical Data, Chpt 5, “Making Your Data Legible- A Basic Introduction to Visualization,” 2015. [C]
Writing Assignment: Reading Reflection #7 [C]
Tool Exercise &Lab: TE6: Tableau Public; Blog post #6 [after lab]
W 10/25: Databases
Readings:
- Manovich_Database as a Genre of New Media_2000. [C]
- Gibbs and Owens_The Hermeneutics of Data and Historical Writing_2013. [C]
- Ramsay, “Databases” (2004).
- Quamen and Bath_Databases_2016. [C]
- Kosara, “Spreadsheet Thinking vs. Database Thinking” (2016).
- Leon, “The Peril and Promise of Historians as Data Creators: Perspective, Structure, and the Problem of Representation” (2019).
- Collini, Enslaved-Midwives-Database-preprint. [C]
Writing Assignment: Reading Reflection #8 [C]
Tool Exercise & Lab: TE7: Airtable; blog post #7 [after lab]
W 11/1: Metadata & Linked Data
Readings:
- UC Santa Cruz University Libraries, Metadata Creation.
- Berners-Lee_Linked Data (2009).
- Sternfeld_Archival Theory and Digital Historiography_2011. [C]
- Urberg_Digital humanities projects and standards- Let’s get this conversation started!_2020. [C]
- Hawkins_Archives, linked data and the digital humanities_2022. [C]
Writing Assignment: Reading Reflection #9 [C]
Tool Exercise & Lab: TE8: Metadata exercise; blog post #8 [after lab]
W 11/8: Computational Text Analysis
Readings:
- Sinclair and Rockwell, “Text Analysis and Visualization: Making Meaning Count,” 2016. [C]
- Jockers and Underwood, “Text-Mining the Humanities,” 2016. [C]
- Tilton, “Race and Place Dialect and the Construction of Southern Identity in the Ex-Slave Narratives” (2019).
- Soni, Klein & Eisenstein, “Abolitionist Networks: Modeling Language Change in Nineteenth-Century Activist Newspapers” (2021).
Writing Assignment: Reading Reflection #10 [C]
Tool Exercise & Lab: TE9: Voyant Tools; blog post #9 [after lab]
W 11/15: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production, Part II: Networks
Reading Assignment:
- Lima, Visual Complexity chpt. 3 “Decoding Networks” (2011). [C]
- Graham et al, Exploring Big Historical Data, Chpt 6, “Network Analysis,” 2015. [C]
- Ahnert & Ahnert, “Protestant Letter Networks in the Reign of Mary I: A Quantitative Approach (2015).
Writing Assignment: Reading Reflection #11 [C]
Tool Exercise & Lab: TE10: Net.Create; blog post #10 [after lab]
W 11/22: Thanksgiving Break
W 11/29: AR/VR & Gaming
Reading Assignment:
- Bell, “Toward a Definition of Virtual Worlds,” 2008. [C]
- Downey, “History of the (Virtual) Worlds,” 2014. [C]
- Johanson, “Making Virtual Worlds,” 2016. [C]
- Champion, “Game-Based History and Historical Simulations,” 2015.pdf [C]
- Coltrain and Ramsay, “Can Video Games Be Humanities Scholarship?” (2019).
- Ottaway and Mason, “Reconsidering Poor Law Institutions by Virtually Reconstructing and Re-Viewing an Eighteenth-Century Workhouse,” 2021. [C]
Writing Assignment: Reading Reflection #12 [C]
Lab: Hands-on exploration
W 12/6: Digital Storytelling: Podcasting & Video
Reading/Listening Assignment:
- Beasley & Stein, “Podcasting History,” The American Historian (2017): 12-16.
- Covart, “History Podcasts: An Overview of the Field, JAH, 2022. [C]
- Podcast: Drafting the Past [Listen to one].
- Podcast: Ben Franklin’s World [Listen to one].
- Anna: One Woman’s Quest for Freedom in Early Washington, DC (2018) Live action animated documentary film [12 min.].
Writing Assignment: Blog post #11
Lab: Meet at Adobe Studio & Makerspace in Cooper Library
Finals Week: Final Project Presentations (W 12/13, 7:00-9:30 pm)
Presentation: WordPress project Pecha Kucha presentation: With a limit of 20 seconds per slide, each student will present 20 slides containing 1 image and no more than 5 words.
Assignments [all due before 7:00 PM Wednesday 12/13]:
- WordPress project completed
- Blog Post #12: Post Pecha Kucha presentation with a brief reflection on the format’s challenges and opportunities
- Self-Evaluation [C]
