| Introduction to Digital Humanities New York University Abu Dhabi AHC-AD 139, Fall 2016 Dr. David Joseph Wrisley @DJWrisley Office: A6 195 Office hours Sun 20-2130 / Wed 1600-1730, or by appt (held in the digital humanities lab A6-016B) |
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This course provides a basic overview of, and critical engagement with, issues in the interdisciplinary research humanities practices known as “Digital Humanities.“ As we move between the “digital” and the “humanities,” in this course we will explore both the benefits, and limitations, of digital methods in research applied to texts and objects of the cultural record. The course is made up of four essential parts:
- how texts are digitized, encoded and collected in digital environments, and how they can be analyzed
- data about the human record: where they exist already in open access, & how they might be collected and structured for the humanities;
- abstract models, exploring means for visualizing, mapping and otherwise transforming humanities data
- landscapes and physical objects, historical and present-day, to interrogate their virtual recreation, to model their materiality or even to attend to their preservation.
Themes/methods introduced in the course: the historical organization of humanities knowledge, text corpora, digitization, crowdsourcing, textual markup, distant reading, humanities data visualization, networks, web mapping, virtual reality, 3d modeling.
There is no final paper in this course, nor is there an exam, but rather a course blog/portfolio made up of reflective essays, two miniature digital projects and a collective project.
There are no technical skills needed for this course. Most of the software and platforms used are free and user friendly. Curiosity and a willingness to engage with technology will be essential.