Week 1: Thursday January 24: Class Goals and Outcomes
This class will introduce the course and its goals, discuss assignments and introduce the main platforms.
Dian Schons, the SSHGS Pathways coordinator, will hold a Career Conversation focusing on history and history-related jobs and digital skills.
Assignment: Write a short biography that discusses your academic interests and career interests. Select a photograph or illustration for the biography. We will use these next week.
Week 2: Monday January 28: Definitions and Examples of Digital History
We will explore definitions of digital history, looking at distinctions between traditional historical research and writing and history aimed for digital publication. We will explore the various kinds of digital projects and how they apply to history.
Read and React Before Class:
- Douglas Seefeldt and William G. Thomas, “What Is Digital History?” AHA Perspectives on History (May 2009).
- Lisa Spiro, “This is Why We Fight: Defining Values in the Digital Humanities,” in Matthew Gold, ed. Debates in the Digital Humanities (2012)
- Toni Weller, “Introduction,” in HDA (2012), 1-19
Due: React to Readings #1: What does Digital History Mean to You?
Assignment: Review the list of 1919 Events in preparation for selection next class.
Thursday January 31: Writing for the Web
We will discuss how writing for the public and for presentation on the web differs from writing research papers, how the use of links and media change the way that we read and cite papers.
Read Before Class:
- Seth Denbo, “Imagining the Digital Monograph,” Perspectives on History, November 2018.
- Sean Kheraj, “Best Practices for Writing History on the Web,” Oct. 16, 2014, Active.History.ca
- Alex Sayf Cummings and Jonathan Jarrett, “Only Typing? Informal Writing, Blogging, and the Academy,” WHDA, 246-258.
- Dan Wewers, A Brief Guide to Writing the History Paper (Harvard Writing Center) 2007.
Recommended:
- A Short Guide to Writing about History (2015).
Lab: Introduction to WordPress and the Discovering 1919 Site.
Students will create Basecamp and WordPress accounts, learn to create biographical blog posts. Students will select topics for Discovering 1919 blog assignment.
Assignment: Mapping Historography.
Week 3: Monday February 4: Changing modes of research
Discussion and exploration of the ways historians’ research has changed with the advent of digital tools and search engines. We will look at examples of major open-source resources, genealogical databases, and image databases.
Christina Connor will speak to the class on research databases and locating secondary resources at the George Potter Library.
Read Before Class:
- Joseph Hindy, 20 Google Search Tips to Use Google More Effectively, Life Hack (August 2018)
- William Turkel, Kevin Kee and Spencer Roberts, “A Method for Navigating the Infinite Archive,” HDA, pp. 61-75. Turkel-HDA
- Robert Townsend, “Historians and the Technologies of Research” Perspectives on History, October 2017.
Thursday February 7: Lab: Using Historical Newspapers
We will explore Newspapers.com, Proquest Historical Newspapers, the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America, and Fulton Search. We will use Basecamp to organize research.
Read Before Class:
- Robert B. Allen and Robert Sieczkiewicz, “How Historians Use Historical Newspapers,” (2010).
Week 4: Monday, February 11: Digitizing Historical Sources and Metadata
We will discuss the reasons why primary source materials are digitized, and how the methods used relate to the scholarly purposes. Students will be introduced to the basics of scanning, taking digital photographs of historical objects and artifacts, transcription and quality control.
Read for Class:
- Dan Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig, “Becoming Digital,” in Digital History (2006)
- Sharon Leon, “About the Jesuit Plantation Project,” and “Thinking with Linked Data, Representing History,” [bracket], November 1, 2018.
Due: Source List for Historiography Assignment.
Thursday February 14: Lab: Designing Metadata
Students working in teams will design metadata for historical sources.
Week 5: Monday, February 18: Mahwah Newspaper Project
Students scan and create metadata for newspaper clippings from the Mahwah Museum.
Read Before Class:
Due: Discovering 1919 Blog Post #1 Draft Due.
Thursday, February 21: Digital Mapping and GIS
Geographic Information Systems have transformed the way the historians use maps. We will look at some examples of maps that allow us to present history in new and different ways.
Read Before Class:
- David J. Bodenheimer, “The Spatial Humanities: Space, Time, and Place in the New Digital Age,” in HDA, Chap. 1.
Lab: Customizing Google Maps
- Students will add points related to their blog post to the shared Discovering 1919 map.
Week 6: Monday, February 25:
It’s About Time: Creating Digital Timelines
We will discuss how historians use time and timelines to organize and visualize their work.
Lab: Building a Timeline with Timeline JS
Class will build a 1919 timeline using TimelineJS to plot events covered in the Discovering 1919 blog.
Thursday, February 28: Lab: Historiography Story Map
StoryMap JS will be introduced. Students will break into groups and begin building their StoryMap, assigning pages to group members and discussing next steps.
Week 7: Monday, March 4: Analyzing Good and Bad Websites
We will discuss how you can tell the difference between good web-based resources and bad ones. We will look at audience, intent, mechanics, and documentation.
Prepare Before Class:
- Search for digital archives of primary sources relevant to our study of 1919. Post the URL of one good and one bad site on Basecamp and be prepared to present them.
- Search for a history-based website with secondary sources or popular history on topics relevant to our study of 1919. Post the URLS of one good and one bad site on Basecamp and be prepared to present them.
Thursday March 7: Lab: Group Work on Discovering 1919 Site
Building on what we learned about websites, students will identify ways to add pages and widgets to the Discovering 1919 website to better tie together the blog posts.
Week 8: Monday, March 11: Lab: Historiography Story Map Groups/Discovering 1919 site work
Students will work on adding additional events to their story maps and work on developing the Discovering 1919 site.
Thursday, March 14: Research Lab
Prepare Before Class:
Students should post at least three research issues or questions to Basecamp.
- Are you having trouble locating primary sources?
- Are you having trouble locating images or videos?
- Are you having trouble with WordPress?
- Are you having trouble with interpretation?
Week 9: March 18-21: SPRING BREAK
Week10: Monday March 25: Crowdsourcing History
Discussion of how the interactivity of the web enables historians to reach out to their audience, have their audience respond, and tap into the digital community for assistance in the form of crowdsourcing. Students will practice crowdsourcing, selecting a project to work with for their assignment.
Read:
- Elissa Frankle, “More Crowdsourced Scholarship: Citizen History,” Center for the Future of the Museum, July 28, 2011.
- Trevor Owens, “Crowdsourcing Cultural Heritage: The Objectives Are Upside Down”, March 10, 2012.
Due: Discovering 1919 Blog Post #2 Draft Due.
Lab: Crowdsourcing
Students will select and join a crowdsourcing site.
Thursday March 28: Historiography Story Map Lab
Due by end of class: Historiography StoryMaps. Presentations at end of class
Week 11: Monday, April 1: Data Visualization
Discussion about new tools for historical research that rely on distance reading, algorithms, and visualization in order to reach new conclusions.
Read Before Class:
- S. Graham, I. Milligan, & S. Weingart, “Making Your Data Legible: A Basic Introduction to Visualizations,” The Historian’s Macroscope: Big Digital History (2015).
- Dan Cohen, “Searching for the Victorians,” Dan Cohen’s blog, Oct. 4, 2010.
- Cameron Blevins, “Martha Ballard’s Diaries,” (any one of the four blog posts), Cameron Blevins, 2009-2010.
- Luke McKernan, Six Degrees of Francis Bacon, October 2015.
Due: React to Readings: Visualizing History via Perusall
Thursday, April 4: Lab: Visualizing the Census
Students will work using Social Explorer to analyze census data and build visualizations that tell us something about what America was like in 1919.
Read Before Class:
- Tanvi Misra, A New Way of Seeing 200 Years of American Immigration, D
- Social Explorer, Creating Reports from a Map
- U.S. Census Bureau, 1920 Census
Due: Crowdsourcing Presentation
Week 12: Monday, April 8: Infographics Lab
Read Before Class:
- Anna Vital, “What is an Infographic?” Adioma (June 2018)
Prepare Before Class:
- Find two infographics that interpret some aspect of history and post them to Basecamp. Look at where they get their data and how they present it. Be prepared to present them.
Lab: Creating Infographics
Students will develop infographics based on research done for the Discovering 1919 site or their Social Explorer Maps, or a combination of both.
Thursday, April 11: Discovering 1919 Site Lab
Students will work on improving the Discovering 1919 site and their blog posts.
Prepare Before Class:
Post three ideas for adding content and interpretation to the site to Basecamp.
Week 13: Monday, April 15: Discovering 1919 Lab
Students will do peer review on selected blog posts and work within themes to connect posts with interpretations or visualizations.
Prepare:
- Read three posts assigned to you.
- On overall presentation-appearance, navigation
- On content – writing style, citations, analysis
- Is anything confusing? Not well explained? Not supported by fact?
Thursday, April 18: Discovering 1919 Site Lab
Students will work on tasks associated with improving Discovering 1919 Site Lab.
Week14: Monday, April 22: Making Games out of History / Jeremiah McCall Video and Live Questions and Answers.
Jeremiah McCall will present a video and then engage in a live questions and answers session via teleconference. A discussion of how we use simulations and visualizations of history to teach and entertain, the challenges, and research behind making history come alive.
Watch:
- Jeremiah McCall, Playing With The Past: History & Video Games (and Why it Might Matter), January 26, 2019.
Prepare:
Bring three questions about simulations and history games for education to class.
Thursday, April 28: Lab: Video Game Pitch
Week 15: April 29: (No Class)
- Students can sign up for time blocks to go over any questions/issues. See Basecamp.
Thursday, May 1: Problems With Digital History
Discussion about the risks that digital history poses, specifically the challenges to professional authority and the fragile nature of digital media.
Read Three Before Class and be prepared to discuss:
- David Thomas and Valerie Johnson, “New Universes or Black Holes?” HDA, Chapter 9.
- Leslie Madsen-Brooks, “I Am Nevertheless a Historian,” WHDA, 49-63.
- Adam Chandler, “A Warehouse Fire of Digital Memories,” The Atlantic, Feb. 13, 2015.
- Moya Z. Bailey, “All the Digital Humanists are White, All the Nerds Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave,” Journal of Digital Humanities (Winter 2011).
- Timothy Brennan, The Digital-Humanities Bust Chronicle of Higher Education, October 15, 2017.
Due: Reaction Paper — On the Dangers of Digital History
Week 16: Monday, May 6: Discovering 1919 Lab
Student will have time to work on the Discovering 1919 site, consult with me, and create and assign any last-minute work needed.
May 10:
Due: Final 1919 Blog Posts and Discovering 1919 projects.
May 13: Final Exam
Time: 11:40
Room: Laurel 006.