Course Requirements & Expectations

Required Materials

Course readings will be available online or through our course Canvas site. You do not need to purchase any texts for this class.

Please bring the assigned reading with you every day to class, whether in print or in digital form.

Attendance and Active Participation

As with any graduate course, you are expected to do the reading for, arrive on time for, attend, and actively participate in every class period, barring emergencies or illness. This course depends on conversation, and this interaction is a vital part of your training as scholars. I expect each student to participate in class discussions during each class period. If you are someone for whom participation in class is difficult, please talk to me about strategies for increasing your participation.

I also expect you to prepare for each class discussion by completing the assigned readings and preparing notes on them. You should bring both the readings and your notes to each class period. I will also sometimes ask you to prepare specific notes on specific readings in preparation for particular classes. I will not collect your notes, but I do expect you to produce them, whether in a physical or digital notebook, to bring them to class, and to be able to show them to me if I ask to see them. Your notes do not need to be extensive, but you should be prepared to use your notes as a jumping off point for class discussion.

Please arrive on time for class; we have a lot to get through during each class period, and late arrivals are disruptive. If you know you will miss a particular class period, please let me know in advance. If you will miss more than one class due to an extended illness or emergency, please let me know. If you miss more than one class and are well enough to do so, you are expected to write a 1-2 page reading response, focusing on at least 2 of the assigned readings for that day, starting with your second absence.

Lab Notebook

During the first eight weeks of the semester, you will complete labs designed to introduce you to some basic technical skills and procedures that humanists who work with data might use. On most of these weeks (as marked in the syllabus), the last hour of each class period will be devoted to beginning the labs together in class. You will report on your completion of these labs using your lab notebook.

Each lab will include an introduction to a tool or method, a series of practical/technical tasks to complete, and a short written reflection.

People in this class have varying levels of skill and experience with data collection, analysis, programming, quantitative analysis, etc. The labs, however, start from zero, assuming that you don’t have any particular skills or experience with digital tools or computation. I’ve built some flexibility into most of the labs for those who have more experience, but if you have this experience and would like to expand your skillset beyond what the labs offer, please talk with me at the beginning of the semester about how we might adjust the labs to meet your goals for this class.

Final Project

Your final project in this class involves collecting and organizing a scholarly dataset and writing an accompanying “data paper” describing that dataset, its place within a particular field(s), and its potential value or utility for researchers. You may work on this project individually or collaboratively with other members of the class. If you are already working on a project of your own involving data and/or the creation of a scholarly dataset, you may continue that work for your final project. We will work together to determine what exactly this work will look like so that it fulfills the requirements of this assignment.

You will submit a final project abstract describing your project by the end of week 12 of the semester. You will also present your final project in progress to the class during our last class session.

S/U Grade

Students taking the class S/U are expected to attend and participate actively in all classes, to complete all labs and lab notebook entries, and to turn in a final project abstract. However, they do not need to complete the final project itself, nor do they need to present their final project in progress to the class. Students taking the class S/U will receive comments on their work but not grades.