Assignments

Participation

You are expected to attend each class having completed the week’s readings and/or tutorials and be prepared to discuss them. As part of that preparation, you will write 2-3 questions related to the week’s theme and post these questions to the course Slack channel by midnight the night before class. Please read each of your classmate’s questions prior to the start of class. If you need to miss a class, notify me ahead of time and we will then come up with a plan or alternative assignment to catch you up on what you missed.

Professionalization

As part of your participation in this class, I would like you to get to know the wider digital humanities community at Northeastern. Please attend at least three digital humanities events on campus (talks, brown bag lunches, etc.) sponsored by NULab or the Digital Scholarship Group and write a 500-word reaction on your personal website/blog. I will be alerting you to upcoming events over our Slack channel.

Discussion Leader

Each week, one or students will act as the “discussion leader.” You have two responsibilities in that capacity:

  1. Give a short (five to seven minute) presentation on at least one supplemental reading or digital history project related to that week’s theme, explaining its significance and how it relates to the topic and other readings for that week. These presentations will help expose the entire class to a wider look at the field. Please consult with me over the preceding week to get ideas for readings/projects.
  2. Kick off discussion for that week. I will not talk during the beginning of discussion; you are expected to have synthesized your classmates’ discussion questions and have a plan for what discussion avenue you wish to pursue.

If multiple people are interested in the same topic, you are welcome to pair up as discussion leaders. In those weeks, the two of you will work together to coordinate the presentations and lead discussion jointly.

Final Project

In your final project, you be completing your own work of digital history. The particulars of the project are up to you, including its topic or content and the mode of analysis and interpretation. This project can be created collaboratively or individually, and I will be working with you over the course of the semester to develop a feasible project and plan for completion. My only requirement is that you: a) create a clear historical interpretation or narrative, and b) develop new technical skills - either by learning an unfamiliar method or by developing a substantially new level of expertise in a tool or technique with which you are already familiar.