Introduction to Digital Humanities:
Slow Data

HUM 346 / ENG 256

Course Logistics

Class Meetings: Tuesday and Thursday 1:30-2:50pm

Course Location: Zoom (see Canvas site for link)

Instructor: Dr. Sierra Eckert

Email: sceckert@princeton.edu

Office Hours: Tuesday 4pm-5pm, Wednesday 3:30-4:30pm, by appointment (see Zoom link on course Canvas site)

Course Website: https://sceckert.github.io/IntroDHSpring2021/

Course Description

This seminar introduces the digital humanities by exploring key debates around the meaning of humanities data. Like “slow food”––a movement where diners, farmers, and chefs rethink what and how we produce and consume––we will explore data as local, embedded, and requiring careful critical reflection. How can computational tools help us to understand art and literature? What do digital archives reveal (or obscure) about the people who make them? We will explore the foundations of this field while also discussing concerns that emerge when accessing and maintaining digital projects in time and across global and local contexts.

Weekly readings will introduce the key concepts, methods, and histories of digital humanities. Students will explore these methods through reflection papers, short code assignments, exercises in data curation and critique, and final projects. Over the course of the semester, students will work in collaborative teams to plan and design final projects. Course meetings will alternate between discussions and workshops with data from local libraries and special collections, including Firestone Library Special Collections.

Learning Objectives

In this class, you will:

  • Learn the key debates and concepts surrounding work in the digital humanities
  • Develop the ability to make critical arguments about cultural data in the humanities––with particular attention to the layers of mediation that accompany the act of collecting, analyzing, and displaying data about literature, art, and culture
  • Learn the fundamentals of cultural analytic work using the programming language Python
  • Become familiar with some of the tools and techniques in digital humanities, from data collection and web-scraping to media history approaches to software interfaces.

Acknowledgments

This syllabus has drawn inspiration from the teaching materials of many others. A partial list of syllabi that have consulted in the process of assembling this course includes Zoe LeBlanc’s “Introduction to DH,” Meredith Martin and Rebecca Munson’s “Data, Literature, Interpretation,” Melanie Walsh’s “Introduction to Cultural Analytics & Python,” Mellisa Reynold’s “A History of Words: Technologies of Communication from Cuneiform to Coding,” Nora Benedict’s “Introduction to Digital Humanities: Global Encounters and Perspectives,” Jim Casey’s “Weird Data,” and Miriam Posner’s “Introduction to Digital Humanities.”