Rhetoric & Digital Humanities

Rhetoric & Digital Humanities

This course will survey the development of Digital Humanities alongside a careful examination of Rhetoric and Composition’s sub-fields of Computers & Composition and Digital Rhetoric. Set as a conversation between two separate but related scholarly traditions, the course will explore productive overlaps and future potentials for how the two fields may mutually inform one another’s possibilities. Readings and assignments will involve an array of media production, providing students an introduction to the many genres that comprise Digital Humanities projects: proposals, data sets, markup practices, promotional websites, project presentations, white papers, grant proposals.

Course Outcomes

Be conversant about the development of digital tools and methods in humanities scholarship
Demonstrate awareness about digital humanities and digital rhetoric theories
Show facility with researching, planning, and producing digital scholarship

NOTE: This course is designed to be an introductory survey of the various discussions, debates, and methods for the overlapping topics/fields of “digital humanities,” “digital methods,” and “digital rhetoric.” As such, the course will require regular attendance and active participation in discussions. Further, while no special, prior technological skill is required, students should be willing to try new approaches that will often involve unfamiliar tools and methods.

COURSE TEXTS

Johanna Drucker, SpecLab: Digital Aesthetics and Projects in Speculative Computing

Federica Frabetti, Software Theory

Katherine Hayles, How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis

Matthew Jockers, Macroanalysis

Stephen Ramsey, Reading Machines: Towards an Algorithmic Criticism

Jim Ridolfo and Bill Hart-Davidson, eds. Rhetoric and the Digital Humanities

Richard Rogers, Digital Methods

Several required PDFs and online texts/projects will be available on the course site

Recommended

David Berry, Ed. Understanding Digital Humanities

Doug Eyman, Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice

Matthew K. Gold, Debates in the Digital Humanities

Tony Sampson, Virality: Contagion Theory in the Age of Networks

ASSIGNMENTS –

[full assignment sheets will be provided]

Reading Responses – 10%

Each week, students will post a short, focused response to that week’s readings. We will discuss an outline for these responses in class but, generally, I would like for each response to deeply engage with the readings, demonstrate an understanding of the context for that reading, as well as speculate on possible avenues of elaboration for that reading. The latter may include critique, but I am much more interested in responses that productively build on/from established work than responses that only seek to find fault or locate weakness.

DH Project Analysis – 10%

Each student will be responsible for identifying, examining, and reporting on a mature/semi-mature DH project. Students will gather any and all material they find–white papers, website information, publically accessible grant information, etc.– about an established or emerging digital humanities project and write a short report that outlines the project’s aims, history, participants, and possibilities. Students will present an informal 3-5 min version of the report to the class.

Tool Intro and Demo Workshop – 15%

Each student will be responsible for identifying, introducing, and workshopping one digital research tool for the class. Many of examples of tools can be found at DIRT Directory (Digital Research Tools) but students are not obliged to only those tools. Students will sign up for a date on the first day and then will be responsible for selecting and running a short demonstration/workshop for that tool for the class.

Module Exercises – 15%

Throughout the semester, we will complete 4-5 module exercises designed to explore a set of tools and/or methods for digital humanities research. Most of these will be done in-class, but some may be complete outside of class (with a quick turnaround). The Module Exercises will vary as individual assignments, work done as a group, or exercises done as an extended group (more on this as the class develops). These assignments will serve as hands-on practice for the tools and methods we will be reading and discussing throughout the semester.

NOTE: One or more of the products of these exercises may be developed further for final projects.

Final Project – 50%

Students will research, design and compose a semester long project that responds to our shared readings and methodological discussions, as those pertain to digital humanities. Ideally, students will use the course as a framework to extend their own research for ongoing projects (dissertations, proposals, articles). While a more substantial assignment sheet will be provided mid-way through the semester, the general outline is that each student will complete a brief proposal, progress report, presentation, and finally a finished project.

Course Policies

Grading

Class attendance will not be used to determine the grade, but, as a graduate course, I do expect regular attendance and full participation.

Plus/minus grades will be assigned for the final grade. I’ll follow the scale below (which is the Canvas default) to assign final grades. Final grades will not be rounded.

%	Letter grade
94-100	A
90-93	A-
87-89	B+
84-86	B
80-83	B-
77-79	C+
74-76	C
70-73	C-
67-69	D+
64-66	D
60-63	D-
<60	F

Documented Disability Statement

Students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities at 512-471-6259 (voice) or 512-410-6644 (video phone) or e-mail: ssd@austin.utexas.edu or http://ddce.utexas.edu/disability/

Academic Dishonesty

University of Texas Honor Code: As a student of The University of Texas at Austin, I shall abide by the core values of the University and uphold academic integrity. The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community.

Definition of Plagiarism

Religious Holy Days

By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, I will give you an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.

Behavior Concerns Advice Line (BCAL) If you are worried about someone who is acting differently, you may use the Behavior Concerns Advice Line to discuss by phone your concerns about another individual’s behavior. This service is provided through a partnership among the Office of the Dean of Students, the Counseling and Mental Health Center (CMHC), the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and The University of Texas Police Department (UTPD). Call 512-232-5050 or visit: http://www.utexas.edu/safety/bcal

SCHEDULE

[Subject to Change, Often]

Aug 26

Week One – Introductions

Start up & Tech Skill/Interest Grid

Survey of Resources

Sep 2

Week Two – Definitions

Matthew Berry, “Introduction” from Understanding Digital Humanities (PDF)

Anne Burdick, et al., “A Short Guide to the Digital Humanities,” from Digital_Humanities (PDF)

Doug Eyman, “Defining and Locating Digital Rhetoric”

Part I of Debates in the Digital Humanities, “Defining the Digital Humanities” (available online)

Jim Ridolfo and William Hart-Davidson, “Introduction,” from Rhetoric and Digital Humanities

Katherine Hayles, How We May Think, Chapters 1-2

In-class: How We Think: A Digital Companion & Stephen Ramsay’s “Who’s In and Who’s Out”

Sep 9

Week Three – Database

Lev Manovich, Database as Symbolic Form (PDF)

Charles Cooney, et al. “The Notion of the Textbase: Design and Use of Textbases in the Humanities.” LSDA

Sharon Daniel, “The Database: An Aesthetics of Dignity.” from Database Aesthetics (PDF)

Ed Folsom, “Database as Genre: The Epic Transformation of Archives.” PMLA 122.5 (Oct 2007), 1571-1612 (includes responses).

Christiane Paul, “The Database as System and Cultural Form: Anatomies of Cultural Narratives.” from Database Aesthetics (PDF)

Collin G Brooke, “Databases, Data Mining” and “Personal Patterns: Mapping and Mining” from Lingua Fracta (PDF)