Course Syllabus

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Office Hours

Dave: Book a time to chat. I'm generally available M, Th, F 9:30-12.
Alexis: Thursdays 2-5, email for availability.

 

General Info

Readings, tutorials, and at-home activities should be done before class each week. Special visits and and in-class projects will be done during class time.

See the assignments page for information about individual assignments and grading.

Note: We will be adapt and adjust the schedule along the way. I will send a weekly announcement with the definitive reading assignments and will update this page.

Find an overview schedule here.

 

Weekly Schedule

 

MODULE 1: Communicating with a general audience

 

Week 1 (9/7): Introduction
Not required, but for reference: Jesse Goldman, "Animating Anthropomorphism: Giving Minds To Geometric Shapes," Scientific American, March 8, 2013 (https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtful-animal/animating-anthropomorphism-giving-minds-to-geometric-shapes-video/)

IN-CLASS ACTIVITY

Tell a simple animated story using basic shapes. We'll use https://www.svgator.com/ for the animation.

 

Week 2 (9/14): Public History

READING

TUTORIALS

DIGITAL PROJECT EXAMPLE

Take a look at the recent winners and nominations for the Digital Humanities Awards (http://dhawards.org/dhawards2020/results/ (Links to an external site.)) and explore a few things that catch your eye. In future weeks we'll have some specific projects to look at together, but for this first week I'd like you to follow your interests and get a sense of the variety of projects out there.

AT HOME ACTIVITY

  1. Draw on your experience in previous classes to think about what has made classes and discussions good or bad. What best practices and group norms would you propose for this class? These can be big ideas (like: listen with respect when people talk) or specific techniques (like keeping "stack" of who will talk next) . We'll gather everyone's ideas together to create our shared norms. In a few weeks we'll do something similar for group project work.
  2. What topics, areas, materials, etc would you like to work on for the final project? Right now, these can be broad, specific, vague, or partial. The goal will be to create some basis for drawing together teams of people with overlapping interests.

IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES

  • Creating group norms for class.
  • Discussing readings
  • Introducing project platforms
  • Brainstorming project topics.

 

Week 3 (9/21): Relevance

Class will meet at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Here's a map link:

https://prodsmap.cadm.harvard.edu/portal/apps/indoors?appid=d71c69bc4b014b40b730d90880fba3a0&itemSourceKey=Culture%20and%20Arts&itemUniqueIdField=point_of_interest_id&itemUniqueId=193&x=-71.115637153798&y=42.37866592931455&l=0

 

READING

  • Nina Simon, The Art of Relevance (Santa Cruz, Calif.: Museum 20, 2016) (Introduction, Parts 1 and 2) http://www.artofrelevance.org/read-online/

TUTORIALS

DIGITAL PROJECT EXAMPLE

Pick out two visual essays from The Pudding (https://pudding.cool) journal. Pick one that immediately attracts you and one that doesn't seem to be about something you're interested in. How do they make the stories relevant? How do they use images and interactivity?

IN-CLASS VISIT

Tour of "Microbial Life" exhibition at the Harvard Museum of Natural History with Wendy Derjue-Holzer (Education Director).

 

Week 4 (9/28): Interpretation

DIGITAL PROJECT EXAMPLE

Pick two online exhibits from the Smithsonian's archives ( https://www.si.edu/exhibitions/online ). Like last week, pick one that immediately appeals to you and one that doesn't. What is the "big idea" for each? How do the ones you pick relate to the physical exhibit? How do they convey the content (objects, images, stories)? How do the creators try to make the content relevant to the audience?

READING

  • M. Lyon, Introduction to Public History: Interpreting the Past, Engaging Audiences, "Interpreting and Exhibiting History" (83-112). PDF ; Hollis Link (no ebook).
  • Beverly Serrell, Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach. Chapters: "What are Interpretive Labels?" ; "Types of Labels in Exhibitions," ; "Writing Visitor Friendly Labels.". PDF ; Hollis Link (ebook available).

TUTORIALS

AT-HOME ACTIVITY

Start with one of the "curiosity-based" approaches from the tutorials. You could try one Latif Nasser's ideas or find an interesting plaque (in the physical world or on readtheplaque.com). If you're looking at plaques, staying local might make sense. Find something cool and bring the link to class. In class we'll use the library guides to dig deeper.

IN-CLASS

Jeremy Guillette from Academic Technology will visit to introduce Omeka and Scalar platforms.

Start exploring library resources and dig deeper into the cool thing you found.

 

Week 5 (10/5): Inclusion and Equity

Meet at Lamont B30. Here's a map link: https://prodsmap.cadm.harvard.edu/portal/apps/indoors?appid=d71c69bc4b014b40b730d90880fba3a0&itemSourceKey=Buildings&itemUniqueIdField=point_of_interest_id&itemUniqueId=1712&x=-71.11548808915639&y=42.372769724173274&l=0 

READING

DIGITAL PROJECT EXAMPLE

Each chapter in the Digital Communities book listed above highlights a different project. Take a look at the project related to the chapter you choose.

 

IN-CLASS

We will be visiting Lamont so some people from the maps collection can teach us StoryMaps.

 

MODULE 2: Writing and designing for people

Week 6 (10/12): Storytelling in History

MEET IN HARVARD HALL 201

AT-HOME ACTIVITY

Find a story that speaks to you. It could be fiction or non-fiction. It could be written, video, or audio. Why is the story meaningful to you? Are there elements of how it's told that create or amplify that meaning? How is it structured? How does it start? How does it end? Do any of the readings, videos or tutorials from this week illuminate how this story works? Is there anything from this story that you could apply to your own work?

We'll share what you discover in class.

READINGS/VIDEOS

TUTORIALS

IN-CLASS

Visit from Kyle Shachmut, Assistant Director, Digital Accessibility Services.

Here are the slides from the Kyle's presentation.

 

Week 7 (10/19): Visual Communication

Class will meet at the Bok Center Learning Lab. Here's a map link: https://prodsmap.cadm.harvard.edu/portal/apps/indoors?appid=d71c69bc4b014b40b730d90880fba3a0&itemSourceKey=Places&itemUniqueIdField=point_of_interest_id&itemUniqueId=1452&x=-71.12042238319677&y=42.37389534346695&l=0

Here is the Learning Lab visual communication activity material.

 

READING
Project Background Reading (to be chosen by each working group)

 

Week 8 (10/26): User Centered Design

Class will meet at the Bok Center Learning Lab. Here's a map link: https://prodsmap.cadm.harvard.edu/portal/apps/indoors?appid=d71c69bc4b014b40b730d90880fba3a0&itemSourceKey=Places&itemUniqueIdField=point_of_interest_id&itemUniqueId=1452&x=-71.12042238319677&y=42.37389534346695&l=0

Here is the Learning Lab user centered design activity material.

 

READING
Project Background Reading (to be chosen by each working group)

TUTORIALS

 

Week 9 (11/2): Designing for the Web

READING

Stacy Y. Li, "Why design is essential to digital humanities," Medium, Oct 18, 2018.

TUTORIAL

Mary Stribley (Canva), "Design elements and principles."

LINKS

 

MODULE 3: Showcase of digital storytelling approaches

Week 10 (11/9): Big Data and the Humanities

Readings

 

Digital Project Examples (from Jess Cohen-Tenugi, with comments)

(Pick two to explore)

 

Week 11 (11/16): Mapping
Readings

 

Week 12 (11/23): In-Class Hack-A-Thon

LISTENING
Backstory Podcast, "Playing the Past: Video Games and American History" (https://www.backstoryradio.org/shows/playing-the-past)

DIGITAL STORY
Liz Daley, Harmonia, https://harmonia-game.com/

 

Week 13 (11/30): Project Showcase

 

 

 

Course Summary:

Date Details Due