Complete assigned readings before coming to class. Please keep in mind that reading assignments are subject to change. This website is the canonical version of the schedule.

–Week 1–

What are the Digital Humanists Doing?

Jan. 4 T

• Introductions. Syllabus.

Jan. 6 Th

• John Unsworth. “Scholarly Primitives: what methods do humanities researchers have in common, and how might our tools reflect this?” 13 May 2000.
  • Read primarily for the question: what is a “scholarly primitive.” Don’t read the bit about the human genome project (section in boxes at the end of the essay).
• Tom Scheinfeldt. “Where’s the Beef? Does Digital Humanities Have to Answer Questions?” Debates in the Digital Humanities. 2012.
• David Parry. “The Digital Humanities or a Digital Humanism.” Debates in the Digital Humanities. 2012.
  • Read just the final 8 paragraphs, starting with “I have become convinced over the last few years that Benjamin’s…”

–Week 2–

Jan. 11 T

• Miriam Posner. “How Did They Make That?” 29 August 2013.
• Miriam Posner. “How Did They Make That? The Video!” 17 April 2014.
• Stephen Ramsay. “Humane Computation.” Debates in the Digital Humanities 2016.

Considering Comics

Jan. 13 Th

• Charles M. Schulz. The Complete Peanuts, 1950-1952, beginning – end of December 1950, pp 1-26.

–Week 3–

Jan. 18 T

• Scott McCloud. Understanding Comics, chapter 1, pp 2-23.
• David Michaelis. “The Life and Times of Charles M. Schulz” from The Complete Peanuts, 1950-1952.

Jan. 20 Th

• Schulz, 1950-1952, January 1951 – end of June 1951, pp 27-78.

–Week 4–

Jan. 25 T

• DH Project Presentations

Jan. 27 Th

• DH Project Presentations, continued
• McCloud, Understanding Comics, chapter 2, pp 24-59.

–Week 5–

Feb. 1 T

• Schulz, 1950-1952, July 1951 – end of December 1951, pp 79-131.
• McCloud, Understanding Comics, chapter 3, pp 60-93.

Feb. 3 Th

• Schulz, 1950-1952, January 1952 – end of June 1952, pp 131-209.
• Ian Milligan and James Baker. “Introduction to the Bash Command Line.” Programming Historian. 20 September 2014.

–Week 6–

Encoding Comics

Feb. 8 T

• Kevin S. Hawkins. “Introduction to XML for Text.” 11 Jan. 2015.
• TEI by Example. “Module 0: Introduction.” Sections 1, 3.1, and 8.

Feb. 10 Th

• John A. Walsh. “Comic Book Markup Language: An Introduction and Rationale.” Digital Humanities Quarterly 6.1 (2012).
  • Don’t sweat all the specifics about encoding comics. Instead, read for the broad ideas about what encoding allows us to do.
  • You can skip the following paragraphs (which are on the right side of the text): 38-47; 52-59.
• Sign up for GitHub.
• Download and install GitHub Desktop.

–Week 7–

Feb. 15 T

• Schulz, 1950-1952, July 1952 – end of December 1952, pp 209-287.
• Brian Croxall et al. “Peanuts Encoding Editorial Decisions.”

Feb. 17 Th

• Encoding Day

–Week 8–

Feb. 22 T 

• Monday Schedule. No class.

Computing Comics

Feb. 24 Th       

• Megan R. Brett. “Topic Modeling: A Basic Introduction.” Journal of Digital Humanities 2.1 (2012).
• Robert K. Nelson. “Introduction.” Mining the Dispatch. Nov. 2020.        

–Week 9–

Mar. 1 T

• Ted Underwood. “Topic modeling made just simple enough.” The Stone and the Shell. 7 April 2012.

Mar. 3 Th

• Charles M. Schulz. The Complete Peanuts, 1971-1972, January 1971 – end of June 1971, pp 1-78.

–Week 10–

Mar. 8 T

• Schulz, 1971-1972, July 1971 – end of December 1971, pp 79-157.

Mar. 10 Th

• Research Review Presentations

–Week 11–

Mar. 15 T        

• David I. Holmes and Judit Kardos. “Who was the Author? An Introduction to Stylometry.” Chance vol 16.2 (2003). CR.
  • Read for background. Don’t sweat the details.
• Patrick Juola. “How a Computer Program Helped Show J.K. Rowling write A Cuckoo’s Calling.” Scientific American. 20 August 2013.

Mar. 17 Th

• Matthew Roper et al. “Stylometric Analyses of the Book of Mormon: A Short History.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 21.1 (2012).
• Choose one of the following, depending on whether you want PCA explained via text or video. You’re trying to get the gist more than the details. 
  • Linh Ngo. “Principal component analysis explained simply.” BioTuring’s Blog. 14 June 2018.
  • Josh Starmer. “Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Step by step.” StatQuest (YouTube). 2 April 2018.

–Week 12–

Mar. 22 T

• Schulz, 1971-1972, January 1972 – end of June 1972, pp 157-235.

Mar. 24 Th

• Schulz, 1971-1972, July 1972 – end of December 1972, pp 235-314.

–Week 13–

Mar. 29 T

• Word Embedding, TBD

Mar. 31 Th         

• Word Embedding, TBD

–Week 14–

Apr. 65T

• Word Embedding, TBD

Apr. 7 Th

• Word Embedding, TBD

–Week 15–

Apr. 12 T         

• Franco Moretti. “Network Theory, Plot Analysis.” New Left Review 68 (2011).
• Ted Underwood. “Digital Humanities as a Semi-Normal Thing.” The Stone and the Shell. 30 March 2017.

–Week 15–

Apr. 19 T

• Final Exam, 11:00 am – 2:00 pm