Readings are due on the dates indicated. BB indicates a reading can be found on our Blackboard site on the Course Readings page. All changes to the course calendar will be made with plenty of advance notice.

Download a PDF of the syllabus here.

What is Data?

Thursday, January 8: NO CLASS – Instructor out of town

  • Make sure you read through the email I sent on Jan 4 titled “HON 2210: Welcome and Course Information”

Week 1

Tuesday, January 13

No blogging this week

  • Jose Luis Borges, “The Library of Babel” (BB)
  • Stephen Fortune, “A Brief History of Databases” (2014)
  • Daniel Rosenberg, “Data Before the Fact,” from “Raw Data” is an Oxymoron (2013) (BB)

Thursday, January 15

  • Please bring laptops to class today.
  • Ellen Ullman, The Bug (2003), Part One

Week 2

Tuesday, January 20

Cycle 1.1 Blogging Schedule: Readers – Group 1; Responders – Group 2; Observers – Group 3

  • Ellen Ullman, The Bug (2003), Part Two
  • Lev Manovich, “The Database,” from The Language of New Media (2001), pp. 218-228 (BB)
  • N. Katherine Hayles, “Narrative and Database,” from How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis (2012), pp. 175-183 (BB)

Thursday, January 22

  • Ellen Ullman, The Bug (2003), Part Three

Week 3

Tuesday, January 27

Cycle 1.2 Blogging Schedule: Readers – Group 3; Responders – Group 1; Observers – Group 2

  • Ellen Ullman, The Bug (2003), Part Four
  • Nathan Ensmenger, “Making Programming Masculine” from Gender Codes (2010) (BB)

Thursday, January 29

  • Jentery Sayers, “Technology” from Keywords for American Cultural Studies (2014)
  • Evgeny Morozov, Ch. 1 “Solutionism and Its Discontents,” from To__ Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technologial Solutionism (2014) (BB)

Big Data

Week 4

Tuesday, February 3

**Cycle 1.3 Blogging Schedule: Readers – Group 2; Responders – Group 3; Observers – Group 1**

Thursday, February 5

Week 5

Tuesday, February 10

No blogging this week

  • Data Critique Due by class
  • Nathaniel Rich, Odds Against Tomorrow (2013), Part One

Thursday, February 12

  • Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, “What is Digital Humanities and What’s It Doing in English Departments?” ADE Bulletin, no. 50 (2010) (BB)
  • Lev Manovich, “Trending: The Promises and the Challenges of Big Social Data” from Debates in the Digital Humanities (2012)
    • Recommended: Franco Moretti, “Graphs” from Graphs, Maps, and Trees (2005) (BB)

Week 6

Tuesday, February 17

Cycle 2.1 Blogging Schedule: Readers – Group 1; Responders – Group 2; Observers – Group 3

Thursday, February 19

  • Nathaniel Rich, Odds Against Tomorrow (2013), Part Three

Visualizing Data

Week 7

Tuesday, February 24

Cycle 2.2 Blogging Schedule: Readers – Group 3; Responders – Group 1; Observers – Group 2

  • Mark Z. Danielewski, Only Revolutions (2006), Hailey and Sam, pp. 1-88

Thursday, February 26

  • Mark Z. Danielewski, Only Revolutions (2006), Hailey and Sam, pp. 89-184

Week 8

Tuesday, March 3

**Cycle 2.3 Blogging Schedule: Readers – Group 2; Responders – Group 3; Observers – Group 1**

Thursday, March 5

  • Mark Z. Danielewski, Only Revolutions (2006), Hailey and Sam, pp. 273-360

Week 9

Tuesday, March 10

No blogging this week

Thursday, March 12

  • In-class workshop

Friday, March 13

  • Machine Reading due by 10:00 pm

Week 10

Tuesday, March 17 – NO CLASS: Spring break

Thursday, March 19 – NO CLASS: Spring break

Personalizing Data

Week 11

Tuesday, March 24

No blogging this week

Thursday, March 26 – NO CLASS: Instructor out of town

Week 12

Tuesday, March 31

Cycle 3.1 Blogging Schedule: Readers – Group 1; Responders – Group 2; Observers – Group 3

Thursday, April 2

Feeling Data

Week 13

Tuesday, April 7

Cycle 3.2 Blogging Schedule: Readers – Group 3; Responders – Group 1; Observers – Group 2

  • Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist (1999), Down, Part One
  • Tara McPherson, “US Operating Systems at Mid-Century: The Intertwining of Race and UNIX” from Race After the Internet (2012) (BB)

Thursday, April 9

  • Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist (1999), Down, Part Two

Week 14

Tuesday, April 14

**Cycle 3.3 Blogging Schedule: Readers – Group 2; Responders – Group 3; Observers – Group 1**

Thursday, April 16

  • Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist (1999), Up, Part Two

Week 15

Tuesday, April 21

No blogging this week

  • Final Projects workshop

Thursday, April 23

  • Final Projects workshop

Finals Week

Thursday, April 30

  • Final Project due by 9:30 pm