Schedule

I. The Basics

Mon., Aug. 23: Introduction to the Course

Wed., Aug. 25: Introduction to the Course II

  • Annotate Course Syllabus [Perusall]
  • Annotate Hannah Fry, “When Graphs Are a Matter of Life and Death” The New Yorker (June 21, 2021) [Perusall]
  • Complete the student survey if you have not done so already (check Canvas announcements for link)
  • Sign up for a 10-minute one-on-one meeting with Professor Blevins through Canvas Calendars
  • Join the class Slack workspace (see Canvas announcement for instructions), customize your profile picture, and write a post introducing yourself in the #general channel - feel free to include a GIF, picture of your pet, etc.

In Class

Complete student survey by Sunday, August 29th by 11:59PM

Mon., Aug. 30: Getting Up and Running

In-class:

Wed., Sep. 1: Data and Power (class cancelled)

Mon., Sep. 6: No Class (Labor Day)

Wed., Sep. 8: Navigating Python (Zoom class)

In-class

Homework #1 Due Friday, 9/10 by 11:59PM

Slavery and Data

Mon., Sep. 13: Working with Text in Python

In-class

Wed., Sep. 15: Slavery and Capitalism

  • Excerpt from Eugene Genovese and Elizabeth Fox Genovese, The Fruits of Merchant Capital: Slavery and Bourgeois Property in the Rise and Expansion of Capitalism (1983) [Perusall]
  • Caitlin Rosenthal, “Slavery’s Scientific Management: Masters and Managers” in Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman, eds. Slavery’s Capitalism (2015). [Perusall]

Homework #2 Due Friday, 9/17 by 11:59PM

Mon., Sep. 20: Lists and Loops

In-class

Wed., Sep. 22: Numbers, Narratives, and Historical Evidence

  • John E. Murray’s Introduction and Alan L. Olmstead’s review of Edward Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism in: The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 74, Issue 3, September 2015, pp. 919-923. Perusall
  • Selections from Daina Ramey Berry, The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave (2016), pp. 1-9, 33-57. Perusall
  • Look at Professor Anelise Shrout’s website

In Class

Homework #3 Due Friday, 9/24 by 11:59PM

Mon., Sep. 27: Dictionaries and Functions

In Class

Wed., Sep. 29: Bodies, Archives, and Data

In Class

First Self Assessment Due Sunday, 10/3 by 11:59PM

Government Data

Mon., Oct. 4: Creating Data

In Class

  • Keira presentation
  • Creating and Structuring Data

Homework #4 Due Tuesday, 10/5 by 11:59PM

Wed., Oct. 6: Government Data I: Origins of the U.S. Census

  • “Chapter 4: The Census and Industrial America in the Gilded Age” in Margo Anderson, The American Census: A Social History (pp. 86-114) Perusall

In Class

  • Creating and Structuring Data

Data Biography Due Friday, 10/8 11:59PM

Mon., Oct. 11: Data Analysis / Pandas I

In Class

Wed., Oct. 13: Government Data II: Census Stories

In Class

  • Class visit from Dan Bouk

Homework #5 due Friday, 10/15 by 11:59PM

Mon., Oct. 18: Data Analysis / Pandas II

In Class

  • Class visit from Melanie Walsh

Wed., Oct. 20: Government Data III: Privacy & Surveillance

  • Sarah Elizabeth Igo, The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America, p. 57-71, 83-98, 221-223, 232-247. [Perusall]

In Class

  • TJ Presentation

Homework #6 due Sunday, 10/24 by 11:59PM

Corporate Data

Mon., Oct. 25: Text Analysis

In Class

Wed. Oct. 27: Corporate Data I

  • Josh Lauer, “Plastic surveillance: Payment cards and the history of transactional data, 1888 to present” Big Data & Society (2020) Perusall
  • Margaret O’Mara, The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America (2019), Chapter 5: The Money Men, p. 67-82. [Perusall]

Mon., Nov. 1: Data Visualization I

  • “Chapter 4: Data-Ink and Graphical Redesign” in Edward Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information Perusall

In Class

  • Charlie Harper, “Visualizing Data with Bokeh and Pandas” The Programming Historian (2018)
    • Read Overview but skip the Getting Started section on installation and virtual environments and go directly to The Basics of Bokeh
    • Ignore parts that say to save or run new .py files - just create a single Jupyter Notebook and insert code into code cells.

Wed., Nov. 3: Corporate Data II

  • “Chapter 3: On Rational, Scientific, Objective Viewpoints from Mythical, Imaginary, Impossible Standpoints” in Data Feminism [Perusall]
  • Primary sources on 1990s smart rooms and ubiquitous computing: [Perusall]
    • Alex Pentland, “Smart Rooms” (1996)
    • Mark Weiser, “The Future of Ubiquitous Computing on Campus” (1998)

In Class

  • Class visit from John Tinnell, Director of Digital Studies Certificate
  • Teddy presentation

Homework #7 Due Friday, 11/5 by 11:59PM

Second Self Assessment Due Sunday 11/7

Mon., Nov. 8: Data Visualization II and Spatial Data

In class:

  • Class visit from Diane Fritz, Geospatial Data Scientist at Auraria Library

Project Proposal due by Tuesday, 11/9 by 11:59PM

Wed., Nov. 10: Corporate Data III | Project Proposals

In Class

  • Project proposal presentations

Mon., Nov. 15: The Data Economy Today

  • “Chapter 5: Unicorns, Janitors, Ninjas, Wizards, and Rock Stars” in Data Feminism Perusall

In Class

  • Class visit from Colin Schoppert, Product Manager at DoorDash

Wed., Nov. 17: Computer Vision

  • Lauren Tilton and Taylor Arnold, “Distant Viewing: Analyzing Large Visual Corpora” Digital Scholarship in the Humanities (2019) Perusall

In Class

Research Project Data Biography due Friday, 11/19

Mon., Nov. 22: No Class (Fall Break)

Wed., Nov. 24: No Class (Fall Break)

Research Projects

Mon., Nov. 29: Project Workshop

In-class

Wed., Dec. 1: Project Workshop

  • Complete the first three parts “For loops”, “Automating data processing using For Loops”, and “Writing Unique Filenames” from the lesson: “Data workflows and automation” Python for Humanities (stop at “Building reusable and modular code with functions”).
    • Create a new Jupyter Notebook in your python-humanities-lessons folder called 05-loops-and-functions.ipynb and use it to go through the lesson.

Rough Draft of Research Project due Sunday, December 5th by 11:59PM

Mon., Dec. 6: Final Project Presentations

  • Prepare 7-10 minute presentation on the draft of your research project

Wed., Dec. 8: Wrapping Up

Final Research Project Due Tuesday, December 14  by 11:59PM

Final Self Assessment Due Tuesday, December 14  by 11:59PM