Introduction to Digital Humanities

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 that I have ordered. You will find some readings in the Course Reserves system, indicated by CR.

–Week 1–

Digital Humanities = Screwing Around 🔩🔁

Aug. 31 T         

• Introductions, Syllabus

Sep. 2 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. 7 T           

• Alexis C. Madrigal, “How Netflix Reverse-Engineered Hollywood.” The Atlantic. 2 January 2014.

Mapping Digital Humanities 🗺

Sep. 9 Th         

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

–Week 3–

Sep. 14 T         

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

Sep. 16 Th        

• James Joyce. Dubliners. “The Sisters,” “An Encounter,” “Araby,” “Eveline,” “After the Race,” and “Two Gallants” (1-55).

–Week 4–

Sep. 21 T         

• Joyce, Dubliners, “The Boarding House,” “A Little Cloud,” “Counterparts,” “Clay,” and “A Painful Case” (56-114)
• Dubliners poll.

Sep. 23 Th        

• Joyce, Dubliners, “A Mother” and “The Dead” (134-148, 175-225; yes, we’re skipping “Ivy Day” and “Grace.”)

–Week 5–

Sep. 28 T         

• Mapping presentations

Reading the Digital 👓 🎮

Sep. 30 Th        

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

–Week 6–

Oct. 5 T           

• Steven Johnson. “Games,” 16-62. Everything Bad is Good for You. 2005.

Oct. 7 Th          

• Jesper Juul. “What is Casual.” Casual Revolution. 2010. (CR)

–Week 7–

Oct. 12 T          

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

Oct. 14 Th        

• Facebook and Feelings
• Siva Vaidhyanathan. “The Pleasure Machine.” Antisocial Media. 2018. (CR)
• Whitney Phillips. “We’re the Reason We Can’t Have Nice Things on the Internet.” Quartz. 29 December 2015.
• Laurence Scott, “Is Social Media Making Us…Better People?” Wired. 14 July 2021

–Week 8–

Oct. 19 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. Remix. 2008. (CR)

Oct. 21 Th        

• Videogame presentations

–Week 9–

Oct. 26 T          

• Kirby Ferguson et al. “Everything is a Remix.”
• Adrienne Lafrance. “When a ‘Remix’ is Plain Ole Plagiarism.” The Atlantic. 3 May 2017.

Oct. 28 Th        

• Midterm Exam

–Week 10–

This is Your Eyes on the Internet 👁👁🕸

Nov. 2 T          

• Mark Sample. “Notes towards a Deformed Humanities.” Sample Reality. 2 May 2012.         
• N+7 Machine 

Nov. 4 Th         

• 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.

–Week 11–

Nov. 9 T          

• Jason Eppink. “A Brief History of the Gif: So Far.” Journal of Visual Culture. 2014. (CR)
• Lauren Michele Jackson. “We Need to Talk about Digital Blackface in Reaction GIFs.” Teen Vogue. 2 August 2017.

Nov. 11 Th       

• Walter Benjamin. Epigraph and sections I-IV, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Illuminations. 1968.
• Mitchell Clark. “NFTs, explained.” The Verge. 18 August 2021.
• Everest Pipkin. “Here is the Article You Can Send to People When They Say ‘But the Environmental Issues with Cryptoart will be Solved Soon, Right?’” Medium. 3 March 2021.

–Week 12–

Nov. 16 T         

• Film project presentations
• Tom Simonite. “Artificial Intelligence is Coming for Our Faces.” Wired. 24 June 2019.
• Kashmir Hill and Jeremy White. “Designed to Deceive: Do These People Look Real to You?” New York Times. 21 November 2020.

Reading Digitally, or, How to (Not) Read Vonnegut 🙅🏽‍

Nov. 18 Th       

• Ben Blatt. “Introduction” and “Use Sparingly.” Nabokov’s Favorite Word is Mauve. 2017. (CR)

–Week 13–

Nov. 23 T         

• Friday instruction? Madness.

Nov. 25 Th       

• No class. Be thankful.

–Week 14–

Nov. 30 T         

Class Ratings

• BYU Student Ratings
• Letter to Future Students

• Kurt Vonnegut. Welcome to the Monkey House. “Preface,” “Harrison Bergeron,” “Who Am I This Time?,” “Tom Edison’s Shaggy Dog,” and “Report on the Barnhouse Effect.”

Dec. 2 Th         

• Vonnegut, Welcome to the Monkey House, “Long Walk to Forever,” “Unready to Wear,” and “Adam,” and “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.”

–Week 15–

Dec. 7 T           

• Vonnegut project

Dec. 9 Th         

• Vonnegut project

–Week 16–

Dec. 16 Th       

• Final Exam, 3:00-6:00pm