Engl 428—Digital Humanities

Instructor:  Crystal Alberts Office:  Merrifield 1D

Phone: 7-2393/7-3321

E-mail:  crystal.alberts@und.nodak.edu

Required Texts:

A Companion to Digital Literary Studies (available online at http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companionDLS/)

A Companion to Digital Humanities (available online at http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companion/)

Objective of the Course:

Regardless of career goals, it is highly likely that you will be asked to have some knowledge of computers and be expected to use them to disseminate information (whether in the form of emails, documentation, web pages, or something else). Digital Humanities collections are one way that information is being delivered to people throughout the world. But what exactly are "Digital Humanities?" It is the umbrella term used to describe multi-media content (including text, images, audio, and video) from the disciplines in the humanities that has been made electronically available (usually via the Internet). However, digital humanities collections involve much more than just creating web pages. These projects ask that you analyze the intellectual content of the texts being digitized and consider the best way to present the materials so that they can be used by the intended audience (whether it is comprised of scholars, teachers, students, entrepreneurs or some combination thereof). They also require collaboration and documentation (not only about how the collection was created, but also explaining how to use it).

Because these skills are perhaps best learned in a hands-on situation, this course is designed to give “real world” experience in the classroom by requiring you to work on a project.  In this course, students will learn how to communicate in a professional environment, design a digital project, encode multi-media (text, image, and/or sound) materials involved in XML, document the creative process, and complete a final internet-ready product by the end of the semester.

Class Schedule

(Reading Assignments are Subject to Change)

Digital Humanities http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companion/  

“Literary Studies,” Thomas Rommel; “Computing and the Historical Imagination,” by William G. Thomas, II; “Computing for Archaeologists,” by Harrison Eiteljorg, II; “Multimedia,” Geoffrey Rockwell and Andrew Mactavish

Digital Humanities http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companion/ 

“Marking Texts of Many Dimensions,” Jerome McGann; “Text Encoding,” Allen H. Renear

Digital Humanities http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companion/ 

“Designing Sustainable Projects and Publications,” Daniel V. Pitti; “Conversion of Primary Sources,” Marilyn Deegan and Simon Tanner; “The Past, Present, and Future of Digital Libraries,” Howard Besser; “Preservation,” Abby Smith

Digital Literary Studies http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companionDLS/ 

“Hypertext and Avant-texte in Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Literature,” Dirk Van Hulle; “Reading Digital Literature,” Noah Wardrip-Fruin; “Is There a Text on This Screen?” Bertrand Gervais; “The End of Books,” Robert Coover available at http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/27/specials/coover-end.html

Digital Literary Studies http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companionDLS/ 

“Riddle Machines,” Nick Montfort; “Digital Poetry,” Christopher Funkhouser; “Blogs and Blogging,” Aimeée Morrison; “Handholding, Remixing, and the Instant Replay,” Carolyn Guertin