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Schedule

Week_00: Establishing our workspaces, getting started.

• 16 JAN 2018
  • Review the syllabus
  • get set up with GitHub and Atom (via the student starter pack)
  • get set up with GitHub Desktop
• 18 JAN 2018
  Today we’ll practice the assignment workflow and make sure we’re all on the same page with the platforms we’re using. We’ll discuss the reading and we’ll get started with the website project.

For class today:

• Find and submit the assignment here.

• Markdown CheatSheet.

• Before Class
  • complete learn Markdown
  • Read Chapter One from The DH Primer (in Moodle)
  • Using Atom, and using markdown, draft a response: In a few sentences how might we characterize humanistic inquiry? Include the following information:
    • A header with a brief description
    • a subheader with your name
    • using the same level of subheader, list your major
    • using the same, list the due date
    • make a horizontal line
    • draft your response,
    • and use bold and italics somewhere.
  • Print these and bring electronic files.

Week_01: Defining humanistic inquiry

This week we’ll continue to locate the humanities in the “digital humanities,” we’ll look at example DH projects, and we will work on carving out our own space on the internet.

• 23 JAN 2018
  We’ll discuss the reading talk about markup and text encoding.

  • Before Class
    • Read Chapter 2 in Gardiner (on Moodle)
    • Complete and submit responses. See prompt here.
    • work on the Codecademy “Make a Website”

• 25 JAN 2018
  Primarily a workshop day. We’ll work on our websites and practice the GitHub workflow for editing the site.

  • Before Class
    • Review templates at html5up. Select 2-3 that you like and would like to work with. Be prepared to share them and to talk about why you want to work with them.
    • Complete the Codecademy “Make a Website”

Week_02: Defining DH Projects

We’ll look at more DH projects and develop a framework for thinking about their core components. We’ll also share the first parts of our website projects, which are due this week.

• 30 JAN 2018
  Report on site work; look at another DH project together, go over the prompt for the Digital Humanities Project Evaluation.

  • Before Class
    • Work on your website so that you have reportable progress.
    • Think of questions about markup, the project itself, or humanities inquiry as it relates to this project.

• 1 FEB 2018
  Your Website Project, part one, is due. You’ll present your site framework to the class and discuss decisions you’ve made.

  • Before Class
    • Review the “Criteria for Evaluation”on the Website Project Prompt.
    • Finish your website framework.
    • Be prepared to articulate your decisions as per the criteria.

Week_03: DH Datasets

Continuing to think about “digital” “humanistic inquiry,” we will talk about what comprises a DH dataset, we’ll find some, and we’ll begin to explore what we can do with them.

• 6 FEB 2018 We’ll begin to navigate textual datasets. We’ll look at a couple of DH Projects together and discuss the reading for the day.
  • Before Class
    • Read Gardiner Chapter 3, linked on Moodle.
    • Look at the British Chilean Newspaper Project and be prepared to discuss the kinds of humanities data represented therein.
    • Complete the response prompt, linked on Moodle.
• 8 FEB 2018
  We’ll look at more DH projects together, discuss the reading, and go over the prompt for the Low-Barrier Tools assignment. (We’ll start to see what we can do with humanities data.
  • Before Class
    • Read Gardiner Chapter, linked on Moodle.
    • Complete reading response, also linked on Moodle.

Week_04: Text Analysis: 1

We’ll look at some DH Projects of your choosing. We will also do some low-barrier, web-based text analysis using Voyant, about which you can learn more here.

• 13 FEB 2018
  Your DH Project Evals are due today! We’ll do your brief presentations today and we’ll begin to look at Voyant together. Scott will be driving.
  • Before Class
    • Finish your project evaluations, submit the writing assignments, and prepare your class presentations. Submit the writing assignment to GitHub Classroom, linked in the Moodle.
• 15 FEB 2018
  Today we’ll continue to work with Voyant, taking a deeper dive.
  • Before Class
  • Complete your own Voyant Exercise. Be prepared to share it in class.

Week_05: Curating a Humanities Dataset

Now that we’ve seen and done work with datasets, we will begin to make and clean our own. Drop Date is 2/22.

• 20 FEB 2018
  We’ll begin to look at humanities datasets, focusing in class on textual datasets and the kinds of questions that we can ask of these datasets.
  • Before Class
    • Enjoy the weekend and get ready to start digging into datasets.
• 22 FEB 2018
  We’ll work on curating datasets and we’ll get introduced to the Low-barrier DH Tool.
  • Before Class
    • Choose a textual dataset (i.e. should probably involve you downloading a .zip archive of plain text – .txt or similar – files) from our linked archives.
    • Use Voyant to explore that dataset.
    • Be prepared to share with the class (1) the dataset you chose to explore, (2) an interesting discovery and/or the question that led you there.

Week_06: Telling Robots What to Do: 1

Our first foray into object-oriented programming with python. We’ll read some of the scripts that run our Poembot and we’ll discern how the programs talk to the datasets we’ve created.

• 27 FEB 2018
  Now, a little more of what to do with textual datasets. Together, we’ve explored a general overview of distant reading with Voyant; on your own you’re figuring out the kinds of questions you can ask of various datasets with our Low-Barrier Tools project. Now we’ll see how we can parcel out textual data to re-present that data in a new context. Step one: shaping your dataset.
  • Before Class
    • Before class, email Dr. Heil with your top three choices for a Tool to use in the DH Tool Project.
    • From the poets.org website, curate a set of 20 poems that you would like to share with folks via our PoemBot Project. You can browse by themes, occasions, forms, or poets; you can even choose poems by only Ohio poets, if you’d like.
    • Using the GitHub Classroom assignment linked in the Moodle, create a Markdown document that includes a table that has the following columns:
      • title
      • author
      • a link to the poem (make it a hyperlink)
      • the publication year
• 01 MAR 2018
  This is step two of the PoemBot Project, in which we’re parceling out and re-presenting textual data to a public. Today, we will look at a Python script and tell the story of how it works.
  • Before Class
    • If you don’t have one, create a free account at Code School.
    • Start the “Try Python” series and complete Level 1: “Birds & Coconuts” and Level 2 “Span & Strings”.

Week_07: Critical Making and Physical Computing in DH

We will read about critical making and physical computing in DH, we’ll engage some some of both as we assemble our Poembot for Poetry Month. We’ll pause for a midterm assessment and reflection. Also, your report on a low-barrier DH Tool is due this week.

• 06 MAR 2018
  Today we’ll step back to talk about why we might make a PoemBot: what is DH in this project? And we’ll troubleshoot the mechanism itself as we talk through how it works.
  • Before Class
    • Read the “Between Bits and Atoms: Physical Computing and Desktop Fabrication in the Humanities” by Sayers, et al (linked in Moodle).
    • Complete the Response Assignment (via GitHub Classroom), also linked in Moodle.
• 08 MAR 2018
  Let’s present our Low-Barrier DH Tools to the class. Time permitting, we’ll pause to informally reflect on the first half of the semester and you’ll have some time in-class to complete midterm evaluations.
  • Before Class
    • Complete your Low-Barrier Tools project and be prepared to share your discoveries in class.

Week_08: SPRING BREAK

Week_09: SPRING BREAK

Week_10: Telling Robots What to Do: 2

Building on the work we’ve done in Python, we’ll more deeply explore the relationships between scripts and datasets. We’ll build a bot and we’ll think about why one might build bots.

• 27 MAR 2018
  Let’s review the chapter on Bits and Atoms and talk about our display for National Poetry Month. We’ll get an update on PoemBot as well. Let’s also sign up for PythonAnywhere and then nominate me as your teacher in that web interface (see instructions under “before class” for 29 MAR, below).
  • Before Class
    • Relax and enjoy spring break, unless you’re a senior in which case turn in your I.S.
    • Also, if you owe me work, do that. (Check Moodle: grading should be caught up.)
• 29 MAR 2018
  Today we’ll use PythonAnywhere to hack python scripts to write MadLibs. We’ll also catch up with PoemBot and make sure we’re all set for the big reveal on Tuesday.
  • Before Class
    • As soon as you’re able: sign up for a “beginner” account at pythonanywhere. Then, nominate me as your teacher by navigating to your “Account” page and then selecting the “Teacher” tab. My username is jacobheil.
    • Complete your slide for the PoemBot/National Poetry Month display.
    • Read William Carlos Williams’ The Red Wheelbarrow.
    • Explore the “data” directory of this repository full of Corpora. Be prepared to talk about what is here and how we might use it programmatically.
    • Also, choose your favorite list to end the sentence:
      • “So much depends upon . . .”

Week_11: Reading Machines

We’ll expand the sophistication of the algorithms we’re using to create bots that process and re-present textual datasets. How to bots “read” and “summarize”?

• 3 APR 2018 We’ll meet over in Andrews library today; let’s meet in the entryway and then we’ll hold class in the Wooster Digital Studio. We’ll look at our PoemBot display, we’ll share our Mashup poems, and we’ll get working on Markov bots that “write” text.
  • Before Class
    • Prepare examples of mashup versions of “The Red Wheelbarrow” using the script in your PythonAnywhere account. Here’s the assignment sheet and how-to guide. Please use office hours to get help if you need it.
    • Before class, submit an appropriately-formatted markdown document to the GitHub Classroom assignment (named mashup) that contains (1) at least 10 created poems that (2) use some combination of at least 6 different lists. Your Markdown file should indicate which lists were used to create each of your poems.
• 5 APR 2018 Today we will review your Markov creations (I.S. Abstract texts) and talk about Twitter bots.
  • Before Class
    • Complete the Markoving Assignment.And don’t forget the GitHub Classroom submission at the end.
    • Take a look at some of the twitter bots created in the 52 Bots Project. You’ll notice links to the Github repos for all of these. Just in case you want to try to hack some of them for your own means. Like for a class project. Or something.

Week_12: Text Analysis: 2, Algorithmic Text Analysis with Topic Modeling

After wrapping up discussions of Bots, we will explore topic modeling by interrogating the algorithms behind this kind of natural language processing, reflecting on its limits, creating some models of our own, and interpreting them.

• 10 APR 2018 Today we’ll talk a little about Bots with politics and bot culture, and then we’ll move into discussions of Topic Modeling.
  • Before Class
    • Read Mark Sample’s “A protest bot is a bot so specific you can’t mistake it for bullshit”. Follow links out to look at the bots that he’s referencing. Some are also on this list of his bots.
    • Take a look at @clearcongress and read Zach Whalen’s remarks about it from the 2014 Bot Summit. (That was a thing that happened, yes.) Article wonk-factor: 2
    • The have a look at @congressedits and read Ed Summers’ remarks on it. This one is a little more of a walkthrough of the process and the idea behind it. Article wonk-factor: 3
• 12 APR 2018 Today we’re going to discuss topic models a little more in-depth and we’ll do a few of our own (in-class) using David Minmo’s jsLDA tool.
  • Before Class
    • Read Matt Jocker’s fanciful-but-helpful explanation of LDA (latent Dirichlet allocation) topic modeling, “The LDA Buffet.”
    • Draft a response to the Jockers post and post it to the GitHub Classroom repository linked in Moodle. What questions do you have about topic modeling at this point? Articulate them in your response and be prepared to discuss them.

Week_13: Visualizing Humanities Data More Topic Models and Intro to Stylometry

Given our semester, we’ll stay in macroanalysis of texts for this week so that we might continue to process more texts, differently. We’ll process humanities data in yet another way by exploring visualization tools (and discussing how some of the tools we’ve already used can be viz tools).

• 17 APR 2018 Today we will explore some of the topic models that we ourselves make from our dataset of IS Abstracts.
  • Before Class
    • Read Ted Underwood’s slightly more technical explanation, Topic modeling made just simple enough.
    • Like you did for class last Thursday, draft a response to the Underwood piece in which you articulate lingering questions that you might have about Topic Modeling.
    • Complete the Topic Modeling Exercise (to be linked here). It involves reflection; you should be prepared to talk about your findings and about your process.
• 19 APR 2018
  Today we will jump into Stylometry using a tool called Stylo. Consider today a workshop day in which we’ll spend a minute getting the program installed on your computers.
  • Before Class
    • Read this article about the authorship of Harper Lee’s (?) Go Set a Watchman.
    • You should also read the original post on which it’s based.

Week_14: Text Analysis: 3, Algorithmic Text Analysis with Stylometry

We’ll use Stylo, a tool that allows the Statistical Program R to process textual data for stylometric similarities and difference. Think of authorship attribution studies: are Shakespeare’s plays actually written by Christopher Marlowe?

Week_15: Save Your Work!

Our last week. We’ll tie up the loose ends, we’ll devote some in-class time to working on final projects, and we’ll present our final projects and part 2 of our Websites.

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Course Archive: 2017

An Introduction to Digital Humanities by Jacob Heil is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.