Digital_Humanities describes the project as the “basic unit for Digital Humanities scholarship.” While it may be unusual for you to take a class with students from nine other schools, in DH it’s totally normal to work with project partners from many different institutions. We are all part of a small liberal arts college community, but how does that experience differ by institution? By location? By the identity of the student? By the religious affiliation? What can we find out about the history and present of our schools by comparing them?
The Comparative Campus History Project will consume our work in the latter half of this course. In small groups with students from multiple campuses, you will identify a research question to explore in the archival record of our colleges. Using the digital methods you learned in the first half of the course, you will curate data and present your findings on our course WordPress. Specifically, you should plan to include both a data visualization component and a narrative or storytelling component, along with following scholarly conventions like proper citation and attribution.
All group project assignments should be turned in individually by each team member to receive credit. They can be collaboratively drafted, but each student should submit a link to the final product on Canvas. WordPress posts and pages worked on collaboratively should be attributed to all authors.
- Team charter
- Project pitch with research question
- Source documentation
- Process/Methods section
- Analysis/Interpretation
- Data visualization(s)
- Presentation
Week 4: Brainstorming and team formation
Week 5: Pitch and team charter
Week 6: Source Documentation
Week 7: Process/Methods & Data Visualization
Week 8: Analysis/Interpretation & Presentation
- Project teams will be formed in Week 4 through an intake form, though students are encouraged to seek out team members before then.
- Teams will be formed based on interests and time availability for synchronous meeting (morning, afternoon, evening).
- Teams should include students from at least three different campuses.
- When possible, teams should aim to have a mix of skill sets. You don’t need to be good at everything!
Good collaboration doesn’t just happen! It takes open and sometimes difficult communication. One way to take the trouble out of group work is to talk about the issues at the very beginning of your project. In the DH world, this is sometimes called a “project charter.” You can see examples from the Praxis Program at Scholars’ Lab (UVa). Your charter should be collaboratively written with input and agreement from every team member. It can be helpful to reflect on your best and worst team experiences before you meet to draft your charter.
Specs:
- Due July 12th at 11:59 EST
- Post to WordPress.
- Submit link on Canvas.
- No word count, but your charter should address the following:
- What are your shared values? Shared goals?
- What will you expect from each other?
- How will you communicate?
- How will your team handle disagreement?
- How will you divide responsibilities? Is someone responsible for calling meetings? Cleaning data? Assess and share your own strengths and weaknesses
Time to get those ideas on paper! Your project pitch should outline the topic, sources, and approach you think you’ll take for your project. This is not a formal proposal and your project will evolve with time, but the more you share now, the more feedback we can give.
Specs:
- Due July 16th at 11:59 EST
- Post to WordPress .
- Submit link on Canvas.
- 400-600 words
- Your pitch should address:
- Background – What is the historical context of your topic? What have you learned and what do you still need to find out?
- Research Question – What are you trying to find out? Multiple questions are okay.
- Sources – what archival sources will you use? What data do you hope to use and how do you hope to find it?
- Methods – How do you plan to answer your question? What tools and techniques will you use to create and analyze your data?
- Presentation – How will you present the results? How will you integrate archival sources and data? What intellectual property issues do you need to be aware of?
- Timeline – Following the general project outline, what do you need to do each week?
- Teamwork – Who is responsible for what? Where will you work individually and where will you work collaboratively?
- Help – What other information do you need? What skills do you need to work on? What research do you need to do?
Here’s the deal. The thing that makes archival materials so captivating is also what makes them challenging to work with in a computational way. By their very nature, archival sources are unique. Tremendous amounts of time and labor are necessary to properly organize, describe, digitize, and make accessible these materials. Libraries, archives, and museums have been working to make their collections available online for many years, but they’re not done yet. And only recently have they started thinking about making those collections available in computationally tractable ways. Most of you will not be working with perfect data sets. They will require cleaning – or tidying – to get them in a state that can be used by digital tools like Voyant or Google Maps. Sometimes you need to add data (like coordinates) or remove data (like personal information). This project component asks you to fully document the sources you’ll be using.
Specs:
- Due July 23rd at 11:59 EST
- Post to WordPress.
- Submit link on Canvas.
- No word count, but the longer the better.
- A list of the sources you plan to use with full citations and links.
- Each source should include a brief annotation (bullets are fine) that addresses the following:
- Format – what format is this source in? What format does it need to be in? What do you need to do to get it there?
- Rights – who owns this material? What are you allowed to use? How do you know?
- Privacy/ethics – Who is depicted in this data? How? Is there sensitive information that needs to be removed? Any other ethical considerations?
Your project should include some type of data visualization, if not multiple visualizations. As we’ve learned, data viz can be exploratory or explanatory. Exploratory data visualizations can be used to help you learn more about your dataset. Where are the outliers? What has appeared that you didn’t expect? Perhaps you realized you had some data that needed to be cleaned up or modified. Exploratory data visualizations don’t have to be perfect, but can be used as a tool to help you refine your analysis. In contrast, explanatory visualizations are closer to a final product and can be used as evidence in your argument. They point to a particular trend in the data or demonstrate a specific point.
Your projects should include at least one visualization from both categories. They can be dynamic (ex: a map where the users can click on pins or filter data) or static (a still image produced by a data visualization tool).
Specs:
- Due July 26th at 11:59 EST
- Post to WordPress.
- 1+ exploratory and 1+ explanatory visualization.
- Visualizations should include (when applicable):
- clear, legible labels.
- color choices that take into account the prevalence of color blindness.
- appropriate chart type.
- balanced scale and axises.
- meaningful legend and explanatory title and text.
In the DH world, there is no hand-waving about *how* you did something. DH projects are encouraged to fully document and share the process and methods that were used to produce a result or visualization. Documentation of your process is not just about “showing your work” but also because people are genuinely interested! These methods are new(ish) and others can learn from what you did and how you did it. Your project page should include a section where you describe your methods in detail.
Specs:
- Due July 30th at 11:59 EST
- Post to WordPress.
- Submit link on Canvas.
- At least 300 words, the more detail the better!
- The form is up to you, but you should address the following:
- Tools used and why. Why was this the right tool for the job and how did you use it?
- Methods. Did you use a specific method like “topic modeling” or “network analysis?” Did you rely on specific theories or readings to help you understand and apply this method?
- Data modifications. What did you do to your data? What did you add or take away? Did you consolidate fields or separate them?
- Anything else?
Time for the real meat of your project! What is the answer to your research question(s)? One of the hazards of doing a project like this during a short amount of time is that you don’t always have time to sit and chew on the results of your data crunching or visualization (sorry for all the food metaphors). Set aside time for your team to really think through the results of your work. Your analysis and interpretation should be grounded in evidence and the conventions of your chosen method.
Specs:
- Due August 2nd at 11:59 EST
- Post to WordPress.
- Submit link on Canvas.
- At least 500 words.
- Your analysis should address the following, though you are free to structure in a way that makes sense to you and your project, not just as headings:
- The answer to your research question(s) and whether those questions changed over time.
- The evidence for your answer. How did the DH tools/methods help you achieve that answer and where did they hinder you? What other methods might be needed to fully comprehend this answer?
- An acknowledgment of the various theoretical approaches to your method and how your project relies on them – or not.
- How your project addresses the issues of social justice raised in our readings, in discussion, or your own awareness of issues on your campuses.
In DH, it’s not just what you say, but how you say it. We’re not writing papers with 1 inch margins and 12 pt font. The Web is your medium and it’s up to you to use it creatively and effectively. You should plan to take full advantage of the tools you’ve learned to tell the story of your project.
On WordPress, create a page that includes all of the project pieces you have created for this class. It should be laid out in an attractive, logical way that tells the story of your research question and analysis. You can include images from archival collections or other (properly cited/credited) audiovisual material as you see fit. While not required, don’t forget about shortcodes for potential styling of your page. For more information see here.
We will also be having a final presentation showcase for you to show off your project. Plan to have a minimum of one person from your group at this showcase to present your project to your faculty, classmates, and a few special invited guests. The presentation will be from 4-5 EST on Thursday, August 4 and you will have 5 minutes to present what your group has done. You should plan to show your WordPress page in some way, but you are free to do the presentation however you see fit.
Specs:
- Final showcase 4-5 EST on August 4th
- Page made public on WordPress prior to the presentation
- Submit link on Canvas by the end of the day
- All images, graphs, and media must have alt text to ensure accessibility. If you need tips, here’s a resource.
- Presentation is logical (includes headings or other clear division of content)
- Presentation is attractive (appropriately sized text and images, consistent margins or style)
- Presentation uses the medium to its fullest potential
- Presentation includes contributions from all team members
- Be based on some aspect of comparative campus history, using primary sources from local archives
- Include an interactive visualization or interface to your source data
- Data analysis
- Text analysis
- Image analysis
- Spatial analysis
- Incorporate a strong narrative, storytelling element leading the user through your data
- and be presented with clear narrative introduction, bibliography and supporting documentation in a web-publishing platform of your choice: WordPress, Omeka, custom HTML, etc.
- Provide grounding and co-develop students’ understanding of humanistic inquiry, especially those questions that are approachable through digital means
- Strengthen students’ data acumen, digital skills, and research techniques to build a digital portfolio
- Foster collaborative project work; ability to explore and create knowledge as part of an integrated team
- Demonstrate proficiency in several digital humanities competencies (e.g. digital communication; data management, analysis and presentation; critical making, design and development)
- Demonstrate an understanding of the social, cultural, political and ethical implications of digital technologies, scholarship, and artistic production
- Gain hands-on experience with collaborative, creative, and interdisciplinary digital projects