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Class-by-Class Schedule

Assignments are listed below the date they will be discussed in class. Readings should be completed, if possible, by end-of-day Friday[1], so you can post to our discussion forum. Exercises and presentations are due each class meeting, unless otherwise specified, and given our early start time I recommend endeavoring to complete them by 9pm the night before at the latest.

You should in general also have access to all your work in class, so we can discuss and/or revise. Possible methods of access include GitHub (recommended), Pitt’s OneDrive instance (next best thing), an external service like Dropbox, or flash drive.

Follow the links to individual class days for more information, including class notes and more complete homework instructions. NB: This schedule is subject to revision based on our needs.

Outline of the semester:

Week Date Lesson Title
1 Mon, Aug 25 Digital + Studies
2 Mon, Sep 01 No class: Labor Day (setting up and setting out)
3 Mon, Sep 08 Inquiry + Iteration
4 Mon, Sep 15 Code + Comments
5 Mon, Sep 22 Project Iteration 1: Sources
6 Mon, Sep 29 Data + People
7 Mon, Oct 06 Materiality + Modeling
8 Mon, Oct 13 Space + Time
9 Mon, Oct 20 Project Iteration 2: Processed
10 Mon, Oct 27 Access + Accountability
11 Mon, Nov 03 Machines + Learning
12 Mon, Nov 10 Exploration + Inspiration
13 Mon, Nov 17 Project Iteration 3: And…?
14 Mon, Nov 24 No class: Thanksgiving Break (digesting + developing)
15 Mon, Dec 01 (People’s choice)
16 Mon, Dec 08 Project Iteration 4: Presented

Options for "People's Choice" (week 15) include...

  • Batch editing: regular expressions and pixel manipulation
  • Data access and metadata standards
  • Data exploration and transformation
  • Data visualization
  • Digital Humanities as a discipline
  • History of computing
  • In-class studio time to work on your projects
  • Programming fundamentals
  • Programming as an exploratory, epistemic process
  • Teaching and generative models
  • Topic modeling and distant reading
  • or something else you suggest (with enough lead time…)!

We’ll discuss then vote asynchronously in week 13, but you’re welcome to weigh in ahead of time if there’s something you’d like to see!

Week 01: Mon, Aug 25 – Digital + Studies

For next time: Schedule a meeting with Ben for some time next week (that isn’t Monday) to talk about possible sources/objects for you to process and present on. See the office hours page for how to claim a slot or request an alternative if the usual slots won’t work for you.

  • EXT for eager readers:

Week 02: Mon, Sep 01 – No class: Labor Day (setting up and setting out)

Meet Ben in office hours some time this week. Take notes in your Mindful Practice Journal.

To prepare for this week 02 meeting, please (a) watch:

and (b) read:

Week 03: Mon, Sep 08 – Inquiry + Iteration

Continue working on your project, and take notes in your Mindful Practice Journal. After reading, please check the discussion forum and add your thoughts.

To prepare for week 03:

  • install a plain-text editor if you don’t already have one (e.g. Pulsar or Visual Studio Code).
  • create a GitHub account if you don’t already have one. Think about your username: it can, but need not, indicate your real name or match your other online profiles. (Pros and cons either way.)
  • install the GitHub Desktop app and any dependencies it recommends. (NB: This may take up to 20 minutes, so please don’t wait until the morning of class.)
    • NB: If you get an error saying it’s not an approved app, don’t worry: it’s safe. Instead of double-clicking to open the installer, right-click and choose “Open” to give yourself permission to open it anyway.

and read:

Week 04: Mon, Sep 16 – Code + Comments

Continue working on your project, and take notes in your Mindful Practice Journal. After reading, please head to the discussion forum and add your thoughts.

To prepare for week 04, read:

  • Ford, Paul. What Is Code? If You Don’t Know, You Need to Read This, Bloomberg.com, http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-code/.
    • Section 1: “The Man in the Taupe Blazer.”
  • Vee, Annette. “Introduction: Computer Programming as Literacy.” Coding Literacy, MIT Press, 2017, pp. 1–42, https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/10655.003.0003. (Pitt library link).
  • Bertram, Lillian-Yvonne, https://www.lillianyvonnebertram.com/. Read around in Projects, especially “Forever Gwen Brooks,” “Syncopated Star,” and “I dream of creating an intelligent machine”. Look up how to “View Page Source” using your preferred browser. Then view page source on each of these projects.
  • Whalen, Zach. “Any Means Necessary to Refuse Erasure by Algorithm: Lillian-Yvonne Bertram’s Travesty Generator.” Digital Humanities Quarterly, vol. 017, no. 2, July 2023, https://digitalhumanities.org:8081/dhq/vol/17/2/000707/000707.html.
  • Montfort, Nick, Patsy Baudoin, John Bell, Ian Bogost, Jeremy Douglass, Mark C Marino, Michael Mateas, Casey Reas, Mark Sample, and Noah Vawter. “10: Introduction.” 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10, The MIT Press, 2012, pp. 1–17. direct.mit.edu, https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9040.001.0001.

  • Montfort, Nick. “Appendix A: Why Program?” Exploratory Programming for the Arts and Humanities, 2nd ed., The MIT Press, 2021, pp. 319–330, https://mitpress.ublish.com/ebook/epah2e-preview/12629/319.

  • EXT for eager readers:
    • The rest of Ford’s What is Code? – but be warned, it’s less like a magazine article than it is like the full magazine, or short book. It’s great! Just… don’t expect to be done after 20 minutes.
    • Miller, Benjamin. “Chapter 17: The Pleasurable Difficulty of Programming.” Methods and Methodologies for Research in Digital Writing and Rhetoric: Centering Positionality in Computers and Writing Scholarship, Volume 2, edited by Victor Del Hierro and Crystal VanKooten, The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado, 2022, pp. 159–83. https://doi.org/10.37514/PRA-B.2022.1664.2.17. (Direct link to chapter PDF.)

Week 05: Mon, Sep 23 – Project presentations, iteration 1: Sources

For week 05, prepare a 5-minute presentation on your independent project, which we can view in class and discuss.* If you want to time yourself, you can even post a recording; but you must have some presentation file you can share or link to.

For this iteration, you should be able to answer the following:

  • What sources / objects are you working with? How are they stored?
  • What questions do you have about these sources?
  • What are your long-term goals in working with these sources?
  • What are your next steps?

Post your presentation files, along with a link to your developing public-facing project, to the discussion forum.

NB: By “public-facing,” I mean you should have at least a landing page introducing your project to new viewers, even if that landing page is just a README file or tab within a worksheet.

NB: Bring your own dongle, if you need one.

Optionally, schedule a meeting with Ben in office hours for early feedback as you build your presentation.

Week 06: Mon, Sep 29 – Data + People

Continue working on your project, and take notes in your Mindful Practice Journal. After reading, please head to the discussion forum and add your thoughts.

Post feedback for your partners on their current project iteration as a reply to last week’s discussion forum post.

To prepare for week 06, please read…

…and watch:

Week 07: Mon, Oct 07 – Materiality + Modeling

Continue working on your project, and take notes in your Mindful Practice Journal. After reading, please head to the discussion forum and add your thoughts.

To prepare for week 07, please watch / read:

Week 08: Mon, Oct 13 – Space + Time

Continue working on your project, and take notes in your Mindful Practice Journal. After reading, please head to the discussion forum and add your thoughts.

To prepare for week 08, please read:

  • Hoekstra, Rik, and Marijn Koolen. “Data Scopes for Digital History Research.” Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, vol. 52, no. 2, Apr. 2019, pp. 79–94. Taylor and Francis + NEJM, https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2018.1484676.
  • Murrieta-Flores, Patricia, and Bruno Martins. “The Geospatial Humanities: Past, Present and Future.” International Journal of Geographical Information Science, vol. 33, no. 12, Dec. 2019, pp. 2424–29. Taylor and Francis+NEJM, https://doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2019.1645336.
  • Zhao, Bo. “Humanistic GIS: Toward a Research Agenda.” Annals of the American Association of Geographers, vol. 112, no. 6, Aug. 2022, pp. 1576–92. Taylor and Francis+NEJM, https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2021.2004875.

  • Roth, Robert E. “Cartographic Design as Visual Storytelling: Synthesis and Review of Map-Based Narratives, Genres, and Tropes.” The Cartographic Journal, vol. 58, no. 1, Jan. 2021, pp. 83–114. Taylor and Francis+NEJM, https://doi.org/10.1080/00087041.2019.1633103.

  • EXT for eager readers:

Week 09: Mon, Oct 20 – Project presentations, iteration 2: Processed

To prepare for week 09, prepare a 5-minute presentation on your independent project, which we can view in class and discuss.* If you want to time yourself, you can even post a recording; but you must have some presentation file you can share or link to.

For this iteration, you should be able to look back through your journal to answer the following:

  • What sources / objects are you working with, and why? (Remind us or update us)
  • What have you done with or to those sources to take advantage of digital affordances?
  • What have you learned in the process?
  • What are your next steps?

Post your presentation files, along with a link to your developing public-facing project, to the discussion forum.

NB: Bring your own dongle, if you need one.

Optionally, schedule a meeting with Ben in office hours for early feedback as you build your presentation.

Week 10: Mon, Oct 28 – Access + Accountability

Post feedback for your partners on their current project iteration, as a reply to last week’s discussion post.

To prepare for week 10, please read / watch:

Week 11: Mon, Nov 03 – Machines + Learning

Continue working on your project, and take notes in your Mindful Practice Journal. After reading, please head to the discussion forum and add your thoughts.

To prepare for week 11, please read / watch:

Week 12: Mon, Nov 10 – Exploration + Inspiration

Continue working on your project, and take notes in your Mindful Practice Journal.

To prepare for week 12, search the internet for a respected public-facing digital project in your field or discipline. Do any of your field’s organizations or conferences sponsor awards for digital work? If so, you might start there. If you’re not sure, now’s a good time to find out!

Of the projects you find, choose one that inspires you, and present it to the class for a community peer review. Be ready to discuss its sources, methods, and presentation choices, as well as the arguments it makes or questions it helps us investigate. What does the digital medium facilitate?

Post a link to your chosen project to the discussion forum.

Week 13: Mon, Nov 17 – Project presentations, iteration 3: And…?

To prepare for week 13, prepare a 5-minute presentation on your independent project, which we can view in class and discuss.* If you want to time yourself, you can even post a recording; but you must have some presentation file you can share or link to.

For this iteration, you should be able to look back through your journal to answer the following:

  • What questions are you pursuing by processing your sources / objects? (Remind us or update us)
  • What answers do you have so far, however tentative?
  • What are your next steps to deepen your questions and answers?
  • What have you learned about digital research in the process?

Post your presentation files, along with a link to your developing public-facing project, to the discussion forum.

NB: Bring your own dongle, if you need one.

Optionally, schedule a meeting with Ben in office hours for early feedback as you build your presentation.

Week 14: Mon, Nov 25 – No Class: Thanksgiving Break (digesting)

Before you leave for break:

  • post feedback for your partners on their current project iteration as a reply to last week's discussion forum post
  • vote on the "people's choice" week for when we return

Otherwise, continue working on your project, and take notes in your Mindful Practice Journal.

Week 15: Mon, Dec 01 – TBD (the people’s choice)

Continue working on your project, and take notes in your Mindful Practice Journal.

Whether there are readings, and what they are, depends on the results of the vote!

Week 16: Mon, Dec 08 – Project presentations, iteration 4: Presented

In preparation for our final class, prepare a now-10-minute presentation on your independent project, which we can view in class and discuss. For this iteration, you should be able to look back through your journal and your public-facing project site to answer the following:

  • What materials (sources, processing steps, arguments) are you providing on your site?
  • How have you prepared your materials for presentation to a public readership?
  • When you look back at your initial goals, where have you ended up?
  • What have you learned in the process that could apply to future projects?

Post your video to the discussion forum; in the same post, include a link to your (okay if it’s still-developing) public-facing project, even if it’s the same link as last time.

NB: Bring your own dongle, if you need one.

Optionally, schedule a meeting with Ben in office hours for early feedback as you build your presentation.

Final reflections are due by noon on Friday, December 12, so I can get grades in by Tuesday's deadline.

Thanks for a great semester – and enjoy the break!

[1] This early deadline is not my way of being mean; it's just that sometimes things will take longer than you expect, and I'd really like for you to be able to sleep, and for me to be able to look over your work in the morning before class. Those latter two things are the real priorities that the "night before" policy is meant to achieve. ~jump back~