Please note that the schedule may be changed (with plenty of warning) in order to better meet the course’s aims.
| Day | In class | To complete BEFORE class |
| UNIT 0: INTRODUCTION | ||
| Mon, Aug 21: Introductions | Personal History Presentations | |
| Wed, Aug 23: History? | Arnold, Ch.1, skim Ch.2-3 | |
| Mon, Aug 28: Digital History? | Google Drive | 1. Create a Google account
2. Create a Twitter account 3. Complete Skills Survey |
| UNIT I: SEARCHING | ||
| Wed, Aug 30: Information Overload | Twitter and WordPress tutorials | 1. Task 1: Digital History
2. Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic, August 2008. |
| Mon, Sep 4: LABOR DAY (no class) | ||
| Wed, Sep 6: Digital Archives | Session with Kristen Yarmey, Assoc. Prof. and Digital Services Librarian | 1. Trevor Owens, “Digital Sources & Digital Archives: The Evidentiary Basis of Digital History” (preprint)
2. Come to class with 1-2 possible historical questions to answer using the University’s digital collections |
| Mon, Sep 11
|
NO CLASS: explore digital archives! | Task 2: Digital Collections Review |
| Wed, Sep 13: Primary Sources | 1. Create a Zotero account
2. Arnold, Ch.4 |
|
| Mon, Sep 18: Non-Digital Archives | Library session (meet in WML 400) | Task 3: Research Troubleshooting due 9pm Tuesday, Sep. 19
(Don’t forget to work on Scranton Paper!) |
| Wed, Sep 20: Secondary & Tertiary Sources | Wikipedia, Credo Reference Collection, Zotero tutorial | Work on Scranton Paper |
| Mon, Sep 25: Reflection | Endangered Data | 1. Task 4: Wikipedia
2. Putnam, Lara. “The Transnational and the Text-Searchable: Digitized Sources and the Shadows They Cast.” The American Historical Review 121, no. 2 (April 2016): 377–402. |
| Wed, Sep 27: Presentations | Project Presentation 1 | Practice presentation
Scranton Paper due Friday, Sep 29 |
| UNIT II: ANALYZING | ||
| Mon, Oct 2: Historical Interpretation | Arnold, Ch.5-6 | |
| Wed, Oct 4: Text Mining | Google Ngram Viewer | Guldi, Joanna. “The History of Walking and the Digital Turn: Stride and Lounge in London, 1808-1851.” The Journal of Modern History 84, no. 1 (March 2012): 116–44.
Midcourse Reflection due Friday, Oct 6 |
| Mon, Oct 9: Enjoy Fall Break! | ||
| Wed, Oct 11: Topic Modeling | Mining the Dispatch | Brett, Megan R. “Topic Modeling: A Basic Introduction.” Journal of Digital Humanities, April 8, 2013.
(Started working on your proposal yet?) |
| Mon, Oct 16: Metadata | 1. Task 5: Text Mining
2. Baker, James. “Preserving Your Research Data.” Programming Historian, April 30, 2014. |
|
| Wed, Oct 18: Republic of Letters | Mapping the Republic of Letters | Ch.4, p.119-159. McNeely, Ian F, and Lisa Wolverton. Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet. New York: Norton, 2009. [in GD Resources folder] |
| Mon, Oct 23: Network Visualization | Palladio (Düring, Marten. “From Hermeneutics to Data to Networks.” Programming Historian.) | Edelstein, Dan, et al. “Historical Research in a Digital Age: Reflections from the Mapping the Republic of Letters Project.” The American Historical Review 122, no. 2 (April 1, 2017): 400–424. |
| Wed, Oct 25: Clean Data | Breve, Geocoding | Ceserani, Giovanna, et al. “British Travelers in Eighteenth-Century Italy: The Grand Tour and the Profession of Architecture.” The American Historical Review 122, no. 2 (April 1, 2017): 425–50. |
| Mon, Oct 30: Reflection | 1. Task 6: Network Visualization
2. Kelly, Jason M. “Reading the Grand Tour at a Distance: Archives and Datasets in Digital History.” The American Historical Review 122, no. 2 (April 1, 2017): 451–63. |
|
| Wed, Nov 1: Proposals | Project Presentation 2 | Practice presentation
Project Proposal due Friday, Nov 3 |
| UNIT III: CURATING | ||
| Mon, Nov 6: Why History? | Arnold, Ch.7 | |
| Wed, Nov 8: Public History | Clio, History Engine, Omeka | (Final Project, anyone?) |
| Mon, Nov 13: Crowdsourcing History | Roy Rosenzweig, “Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past,” The Journal of American History 93, no. 1 (2006): 117–46. | Task 7: Audiences
Work on Clio Contribution |
| Wed, Nov 15 | Group meetings | Clio Contribution due Friday, Nov 17 |
| Mon, Nov 20 | Fun times with the Final Project | |
| Wed, Nov 22: Happy Thanksgiving! | ||
| Mon, Nov 27 | More Final Project playtime | |
| Wed, Nov 29: Reflection | Online Course Evaluation (bring laptop) | Task 8: Digital History |
| Mon, Dec 4: Conclusions | Project Presentation 3 | 1. Practice presentation
2. Supplemental evaluation |
| Fri, Dec 8: Final Project due by 9pm | ||