Course Description

This course explores different ways of doing history in a digital age. It is designed to expose students to the wide variety of work being done computationally by historians and other humanities scholars. Each week, we will look at a different topic in the emergent field of digital history. In the first half of class students will get a hands-on introduction to a particular tool or method related to that topic, such as building an online public history exhibit in Omeka or doing basic text analysis in the Python programming language. In the second half of class we will discuss readings, projects, and issues related to that week’s topic. During the last several weeks of the course, students will choose a particular topic or method and develop their own expertise in that area.

Learning Goals

• Literacy: Understand the field of digital history and be able to critically read and evaluate the work that is being produced in this field.
• Methods: Gain familiarity with a suite of digital tools and develop more advanced expertise in one of these methods or applications.
• Learning How to Learn: Build a foundation of knowledge, skills, and strategies that you will be able to apply to our own work moving forward.
• Professionalization: Become a better graduate student, historian, and digital citizen, from practical tips and tricks to larger ethics and values.

Note: This course satisfies the introductory requirement for the Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities.