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Class 1 Notes

Page history last edited by Alan Liu 8 years, 7 months ago

Preliminary Class Business

Enrollment & Email sign-up sheet
Required Texts
Course URL:

http://eng236introdh2014f.pbworks.com/

1. Course Concept

Course is a graduate-level introduction to the "digital humanities" ("DH").
The antecedents of DH lie in:

"humanities computing"
hypertext theory and literature
(with underpinnings in practice and theory of curatorial/editorial/linguistic work)

Cousin fields include:

new media studies
media archaeology

In the last 5-10 years, DH has become a booming research community with the features of an emergent "field" and increasing visibility outside the field:

DH Panels at MLA 2014 (compiled by Mark Sample)
Participants at DH2014 in Laussane, Switzerland (network visualization) | DH Community on Twitter (visualized by Martin Grandjean)
Scholarly apparatus (guides to the field, introductory teaching resources, anthologies, etc.) -- see DH Toychest: Guides & Intros
A. Liu, "Is Digital Humanities a Field? -- An Answer From the Point of View of Language"
William Pannapacker on DH at MLA; but see also Brian Lennon's analysis of 2014 MLA Job Information List

Propaedeutic definition of DH:

DH uses digital and networked information technology to curate and study humanities subjects such as literature, history, art, etc.
DH uses information technology to study the humanities in new ways not previously possible.
But DH also makes information technology itself an object of study from a humanities perspective.
DH is both theoretical and practical ("yack" and "hack").
DH links the contemporary study of literature, history, art, etc., with scientific and social-science disciplines that share an interest in information technology and often use the same kinds of digital tools.
But DH is also (or can be) uniquely and deeply humanistic.

2. Course Structure

Topics (see Schedule)
Structure of readings/tasks for each class (example):

Focal Question
Focal Readings
Other Readings
Practicums

Modus operandi of class discussions

Discussion of practicums
Discussion of higher issues
"Open questions" (examples from 2013 version of course)

Course assignments (see Assignments)

Practicums
Follow DH community on Twitter
Blog posts on your field in its relation to DH
Mock Project Prospectus (in form of a hypothetical grant proposal)
[Auditors]

DH Toychest
DH News and Calls For Papers's
Student Work site

3. Class Member Introductions

4. Digital Humanities and the Humanities

Focal Question What kind of "human" subject do the digital humanities speak from, to, for?

Focal Readings ("focal readings" are chosen to prompt discussion in class)

Plato, from Phaedrus (the myth of Theuth and the invention of writing)
Hippolyte Taine, "Introduction" to History of English Literature (1863) [online in sequential sections: I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII]
Marshall McLuhan, excerpts from Understanding Media (1964) (read excerpts from "Introduction" and "The Medium is the Message")
N. Katherine Hayles, How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis (2012), read pp. 27-31 on "Scale Matters" [PDF] (Google Books version)
Drew S. Burk, "Living Network Ecologies: A Triptych on the Universe of Fernand Deligny -- Part 1" (2013)

See also on Deligny's "wander lines": Cartes et lignes d'erre

Questions:

What is the relation of "media technology" to the "human"? (the following words can also be used in place of "media": "information," "communication," "computational," and "digital")

Is media technology necessary for being human?
What kind of human is a media-technological human?

What kind of human is the digital humanities for?

5. Preview of Next Class

https://twitter.com/KevinBGunn/status/511590725600165888/photo/1

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Class 1 Notes

Preliminary Class Business

1. Course Concept

2. Course Structure

3. Class Member Introductions

4. Digital Humanities and the Humanities

5. Preview of Next Class

Class 1 Notes

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