Abstract due: By class on Monday, March 27

Project due: Friday, May 5

40% of final grade

For the final project in this class, you will create a detailed prospectus and a proof-of-concept for a digital humanities project that you will hypothetically develop in the future (or that you may already be in the process of developing). The idea is to incubate projects that relate to your own research interests and/or that may eventually form a portion of your dissertation work, and to gain some hands-on experience with digital tools and methods. You may work individually or in teams on the final project.

The final project requirements are as follows:

Abstract:

  • By class on Monday, March 27, you will have formed your final project teams (if you are working in a team) and each team (or solo student) will submit a final project abstract to the instructors. This abstract should be no longer than 1-2 paragraphs, but it should lay out the general gist of the final project idea. While a good deal of thought should go into the abstract, this informal, brief sketch does not necessarily commit you to anything, and the project may change as needed as you work on it.

    • Prospectus:

  • The standard format for the prospectus is a “grant proposal” containing an abstract, narrative, “environmental scan” (or discussion of related work), detailed work plan (including technologies, required personnel, and budget), and method of project evaluation. Assume that your audience for this proposal will be humanities scholars who also have familiarity with the digital humanities or who are digital humanists. You’ll want to be persuasive about the broader humanistic research significance of the project, that is, but you can assume that your audience already understands that DH methods might be useful, and therefore don’t need to be sold on those methods.
  • Instead of following the standard grant proposal format as detailed above, you are also encouraged to seek out your own grant proposal/funding application model to follow in completing your prospectus. This might include an actual application, or a modified version of an actual application, for funding related to your project that you plan to complete in the future. See UM’s Center for the Humanities page for a list of graduate grants: http://humanities.miami.edu/humanities/calendar/gradsgrants/. If you choose to go this route, consult with the course instructors regarding the format of your prospectus.
  • The work plan portion of the proposal should include evidence of the in-depth use of at least one important, robust tool or method for the digital humanities (e.g., a link to a trial run, screenshots, preparatory material, a discussion of the project proof-of-concept [see below], etc.). This will likely include the tools/methods used to create your project’s proof-of-concept (see below). See Alan Liu’s DH Toychest page for a long list of such tools and methods: http://dhresourcesforprojectbuilding.pbworks.com/w/page/69244319/Digital%20Humanities%20Tools
  • A team-authored prospectus will be expected to be fuller — e.g., with more demonstration examples or supporting materials — than a solo prospectus. Teams need to accompany their prospectus with a summary of individual team-member contributions.

    • Proof-of-concept:

  • The project prospectus will be accompanied by a project proof-of-concept, or the smallest version of the project (or portion of the project) that you can develop that illustrates its potential.
  • The proof-of-concept should also be detailed in the “work plan” portion of the prospectus.

    • Project presentation:

  • The last day of class will be devoted to informal, 10-minute presentations of the final projects.