Complete all assigned reading before coming to class. Please keep in mind that all reading assignments are subject to change. This website is the canonical version of the schedule. That said, here’s the syllabus as it appeared on the first day of class.

All page numbers refer to the editions/ISBNs that I have ordered. You will find some readings in the Course Reserves system, indicated by CR.

–Week 1–

Digital Humanities = Screwing Around

Sep. 3 T

• Introductions, Syllabus

Sep. 5 Th         

• Stephen Ramsay. “The Hermeneutics of Screwing Around; or What You Do with a Million Books.” Pre-print version. 17 April 2010. (CR)

–Week 2–

Sep. 10 T         

• Alexis C. Madrigal, “How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood.” The Atlantic. 2 January .2014.
• Fill out the domain name poll.

Mapping Digital Humanities

Sep. 12 Th        

• Franco Moretti. “Models for an Abstract Literary History 2.” New Left Review. 2004. (CR)
• Stephen Ramsay. “Who’s In and Who’s Out.” From Defining Digital Humanities.2013. (CR)
• Stephen Ramsay. “On Building.” From Defining Digital Humanities. 2013. (CR)

–Week 3–

Sep. 17 T         

• Jhumpa Lahiri. “Sexy.” From Interpreter of Maladies. 1999. (CR)

Sep. 19 Th        

• Virginia Woolf. Mrs. Dalloway, 3-64

–Week 4–

Sep. 24 T         

• Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, 64-128

Sep. 26 Th        

• Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, 128-end

–Week 5–

Oct. 1 T           

• Dalloway presentations

Reading the Digital

Oct. 3 Th          

• Dalloway presentations
• Kathleen Fitzpatrick. “The Humanities, Done Digitally.” From Debates in the Digital Humanities. 2012.

–Week 6–

Oct. 8 T           

• Steven Johnson. “Games,” 16-62. From Everything Bad is Good for You. 2005.
• Janet H. Murray, “Games as Symbolic Dramas.” From Hamlet on the Holodeck. 1997. (CR)

Oct. 10 Th        

• Jesper Juul. “What is Casual.” From Casual Revolution. 2010. (CR)
• Games We Play(ed)

–Week 7–

Oct. 15 T          

• Anita Sarkeesian. “Damsel in Distress Part 1.” Feminist Frequency. 2013.

Oct. 17 Th        

• Siva Vaidhyanathan. “The Pleasure Machine.” From Antisocial Media. 2018. (CR)
• Facebook and Feelings
• Whitney Phillips. “We’re the Reason We Can’t Have Nice Things on the Internet.” Quartz. 29 December 2015.

–Week 8–

Oct. 22 T          

• BYU Copyright Office. “Copyright Tutorial,” “What is Copyright?”, “Fair Use Overview,” “Fair Use Statute,” “Meaning of the Four Fair Use Factors”
• Lawrence Lessig. “Cultures of Our Past,” 23-33. From Remix. 2008. (CR)
• Amateurism and creativity

Oct. 24 Th        

• Kirby Ferguson et al. “Everything is a Remix.”
• Adrienne Lafrance. “When a ‘Remix’ is Plain Ole Plagiarism.” The Atlantic. 3 May 2017.
• Annie Zaleski. “The Strange Magic of YouTube’s Remix Culture.” NPR. 17 July 2018.

Oct. 24 Th – Oct. 29 T

• Midterm Exam, part 1.
  • The exam will be available in the Humanities Testing Lab (B153 JFSB) from 1:20 pm on Thursday, 24 October until 9:00 pm on Tuesday, 29 October, when the lab closes.
  • You can sign up for a slot to take the exam either online or in-person at B151 JFSB.
  • You will have 2.5 hours to take the exam. This is far more time than I believe you would ever need to take the exam. I think it’s more reasonable to assume you will spend between 75 and 90 minutes.

–Week 9–

Oct. 29 T          

• Midterm Exam, part 2.

This is Your Eyes on the Internet

Oct. 31 Th        

• Mark Sample. “Notes towards a Deformed Humanities.” Sample Reality. 2 May 2012.
• N+7 machine (it can take a while to load)

–Week 10–

Nov. 5 T          

• Kevin L. Ferguson. “Digital Surrealism.” Digital Humanities Quarterly. 2017.
• Kevin L. Ferguson. “To Cite or to Steal? When a Scholarly Project Turns Up in a Gallery.” Hyperallergic. 30 June 2016.
• Jason Mittell. “Letting Us Rip: Our New Right to Fair Use of DVDs.” ProfHacker. 27 July 2010.
• Videogame paper due

Nov. 7 Th         

• Jason Eppink. “A Brief History of the Gif: So Far.”
• Lauren Michele Jackson. “We Need to Talk about Digital Blackface in Reaction GIFs.” Teen Vogue. 2 August 2017.

–Week 11–

Nov. 12 T         

• ColdFusion. “Deepfakes – Real Consequences.” 28 April 2018.
• Drew Harwell. “Fake-porn videos are being weaponized to harass and humiliate women.” Washington Post. 30 December 2018. (CR)
• Emma Grey Ellis. “People can put your face on porn—and the law can’t help you.” Wired. 26 January 2018.
• Samantha Cole. “There is No Tech Solution to Deepfakes.” Vice. 14 August 2018.

Nov. 14 Th       

• Many Eyes presentations
• Lindsay King and Peter Leonard. Robots Reading Vogue.
• Lev Manovich et al. Selfie-City.
• Tom Simonite. “Artificial Intelligence is Coming for Our Faces.” Wired. 24 June 2019.

–Week 12–

Reading Digitally, or, How to (Not) Read Erdrich

Nov. 19 T         

• Many Eyes reflections due
• Franco Moretti. “Models for an Abstract Literary History—1.” New Left Review. 2003. (CR)

Nov. 21 Th       

• Louise Erdrich, “The Red Convertible,” “Scales,” “Saint Marie,” and “The Fat Man’s Race” from The Red Convertible, 1-10, 11-25, 53-67, 202-204.

–Week 13–

Nov. 26 T         

• Friday instruction? Madness.

Nov. 28 Th       

• No class. Be thankful.

–Week 14–

Dec. 3 T           

• Erdrich, “Pounding the Dog,” “Best Western,” and “History of the Puyats” from Red Convertible, 104-118, 256-266, 327-336.

Dec. 5 Th         

• Choose Your Own Erdrich Adventure
• Erdrich, “The Blue Velvet Box” and “Beauty Stolen from Another World” from Red Convertible, 88-103, 484-494.
• Student Ratings
• Second evaluation

–Week 15–

Dec. 10 T         

• Erdrich Project

Dec. 12 Th       

• Erdrich Project

Dec. 14 Sat       

• Final Exam, 11:00am-2:00pm
• Collaborative playlist