| Unit name | Introduction to Digital Humanities |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HUMS20006 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Professor. Leah Tether |
| Open unit status | Open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | School of Humanities |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
'There's no Next about it', claims William Pannapacker: the Digital Humanities are no longer 'the next big thing', but 'The Thing'. What are the Digital Humanities though? Who are digital humanists, and do you have to code to join their ranks? How do the Digital Humanities enhance research and practice in humanities subjects such as English Literature, History, History of Art, Classics and Ancient History and Religion and Theology?
This unit will introduce students to the latest digital methods and techniques available for humanities research. Through an overview of key topics, you will gain both the basic skills needed to begin deploying digital techniques and resources in your own work as well as the ability to critically engage with the wider digital cultures shaping these and the confidence to question the assumptions digital humanists make about the texts, images and spaces they encode.
We will cover topics such as how digital resources can provide alternative research and learning environments, the ways in which Digital Humanities projects can help to promote public access to research through the heritage and cultural industries and how digital publishing is developing the ways in which we read and glean information. No prior knowledge of coding or software is required, but we will give you the skills to write and use software capable of mapping thousands of data points to track nineteenth-century crime or 'reading' billions of words to spot trends in twentieth-century political rhetoric.
Unit Aims:
To introduce students to the concepts and technical skills associated with Digital Humanities research methods, as well as to familiarise them with the range of approaches available.
To develop an enhanced awareness of the ways in which Digital Humanities methods are affecting the outcomes of research, and how this is allowing wider audiences to interact with humanities research.
To explore and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of adopting Digital Humanities approaches, considering ways in which issues might be overcome.
1 x 2-hour seminar per week (or workshop for digital training classes).
Supported by screen-casts hosted on Blackboard to support use of digital tools.
Formative
1 x group presentation in final week [ILOs 1-5]
Summative
1 x series of six blog posts in which students evaluate a digital humanities technique or resource related to seminars. (30%) [ILOs 1-4]
1 x 3000-word essay based on formative group presentation (see above; 70%) [ILOs 1-5]
Matthew Gold, Debates in the Digital Humanities, University of Minnesota Press, 2012.
Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens and John Unsworth, eds, A Companion to Digital Humanities, Blackwell, 2004.
Ray Siemens and Susan Schreibman, eds, A Companion to Digital Literary Studies, Blackwell, 2007.
Melissa Terras, Julianne Nyhan and Edward Vanhoutte, Defining Digital Humanities: A Reader, Ashgate, 2013.
