Assignments & Assessment

Participation 20%
Weekly Readings, Assignments and Coding Exercises 15%
Papers 30%
Final Project 35%

In-Class Participation 20%

See the Course Policies for a description of what active participation looks like.

Weekly Readings, Assignments and Coding Exercises 15%

Over the course of the semester, you will have two main weekly responsibilities: 1) you will complete weekly reading discussion questions and post them to Canvas (Tuesdays), and 2) you will complete weekly homework and email them to me (Thursdays). Homework will vary depending on the week––some week will be more focused on programming, others on written reflection.

Your short weekly discussion question should be posted to that week’s Canvas Discussion board by Tuesday at 9am before class. These should be short posts designed to get at key concepts or arguments from the readings. I’ll ask that you post 1-3 short questions about the reading(s) to our Canvas Discussion Board. These will be graded pass/fail.

TIPS: How to Read & How to Craft Discussion Questions:

As you read for this class, try to keep track of both key concepts, arguments and the lingering questions that come up for you during the reading. To think about the question you’d like to bring to our class discussion, try to start with specific questions

You might ask questions that emerge from your experience reading a particular reading:

  • What was the experience of reading this piece like?
  • What is the author’s object (or objects) of study?
  • What seems to be the writer’s attitude toward their object of study?
  • What sorts of metadata did you notice: (eg date it was published, journal, book, or other forum it was published by)?
  • What is the “payoff” of the essay ––how does it help us approach the object of its analysis differently than we otherwise might?
  • How does this essay situate itself alongside earlier class readings?
  • Who is the audience?
  • What kinds of evidence does the author use to make their claim?
  • What does the piece think the reader takes for granted? (Or what does the author of the piece seem to take for granted)?

And you might put a reading in dialogue with other readings for that week:

  • What connections did you identify across readings?
  • How did the arguments or concepts in that week’s reading overlap?
  • Were the arguments in opposition?
  • Was there aspects of the readings that were inspirational or infuriating? If so, which ones?
  • What did you not understand in the readings? What was confusing?
  • What do you want to learn more about?

Reflection Papers 30%

I’ll ask that you write three 2-3-page (double-spaced) reflection papers. These will take the form of a dataset biography, a DH project review, and a close reading of a data visualization, each worth 10%. More details for each of these three assignments will be provided closer to the assignment date. Like your weekly homework, you will submit these assignments to me via email by 9:00AM on the day they are due.

Final Project 35%

Working in pairs, you will complete a final project centered around a cultural dataset of your choosing (I will provide some starting points). This final project is designed to give you the opportunity to practice your skills in designing and planning an exploratory analysis of a cultural dataset that draws on course readings and theoretical questions around data and your your practical skills in data collection and analysis.

  • You will be graded 15% based on a jointly written project proposal
  • 10% will come from percent based on your presentation of your project
  • 10 % will come from a 4-5 page an individual paper that you write reflecting on your project.