Digital Humanities for Undergraduates The digital humanities offer one avenue for exploring the future of liberal education by pursuing essential learning goals and high impact practices in a digital context. This panel of faculty, staff and students from the Tri-College Consortium (Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges), Furman University, Hamilton College, and Wheaton College will share how students have used digital methodologies to engage in authentic, applied research and prepare to be citizens in a networked world. Rebecca Frost Davis, Program Officer for the Humanities, NITLE Kathryn Tomasek, Associate Professor of History, Wheaton College Angel David Nieves, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Hamilton College Janet Simons, Associate Director of Instructional Technology, Hamilton College Christopher Blackwell, Professor of Classics, Furman University Laura McGrane, Associate Professor of English, Haverford College Jennifer Rajchel, Digital Humanities Intern, Library, Bryn Mawr College This session is presented by the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE) session from AAC&U 2012 annual meeting

1. Digital
Humani,es
for
Undergraduates
AAC&U
2012

2. Introduc,on
and
Links
Available
Here
hAp://blogs.nitle.org/2012/01/26/
digital-­‐humani,es-­‐for-­‐
undergraduates-­‐session-­‐at-­‐aacu12/

3. The
Na,onal
Ins,tute
for
Technology
in
Liberal
Educa,on
(NITLE)
|
www.nitle.org
NITLE
helps
liberal
arts
colleges
integrate
inquiry,
pedagogy,
and
technology.
Future
of
Liberal
Educa,on
• Digital
Humani,es
• Libraries
and
Scholarly
Communica,ons
• New
Learning
Resources

4. Humani,es
at
Risk
“As
history
shows
us,
however,
the
arts
and
humani,es
always
risk
falling
from
favor,
seeming
to
some
as
ancillary
or
extrinsic,
a
frill
to
do
without,
to
cut
and
drop
when
,mes
are
hard.”
Arts
&
Humani-es:
Toward
a
Flourishing
State?
AAC&U,
Network
for
Academic
Renewal
Conference
November
3-­‐5,
2011,
Providence,
Rhode
Island

5. John
Seely
Brown,
NITLE
Fellow
2011
• Explosion
of
data
• Exponen,al
advances
in
computa,on
storage
and
bandwidth
• Large-­‐scale,
deeply-­‐connected
problems

6. Kathleen
Fitzpatrick
“a
nexus
of
fields
within
which
scholars
use
compu,ng
technologies
to
inves,gate
the
kinds
of
ques,ons
that
are
tradi,onal
to
the
humani,es,
or,
as
is
more
true
of
my
own
work,
who
ask
tradi,onal
kinds
of
humani,es-­‐
oriented
ques,ons
about
compu,ng
technologies.”
“Repor,ng
from
the
Digital
Humani,es
2010
Conference”,
ProfHacker,
July
13,
2010
Assoc.
Professor
of
Media
Studies,
Pomona
College
Director
of
Scholarly
Communica,on,
MLA

7. Why
the
Digital
Humani,es?
Provide
wide
access
to
cultural
informa,on
Enable
us
to
manipulate
that
data:
manage,
mash
up,
mine,
map,
model
Transform
scholarly
communica1on
Enhance
teaching
and
learning
Make
a
public
impact
Slide
courtesy
of
Lisa
Spiro.
Find
out
more:
“Why
the
Digital
Humani,es?”

8. DH
and
Liberal
Educa,on
Alexander
&
Davis.
“Should
Liberal
Arts
Campuses
Do
Digital
Humani1es?
Process
and
Products
in
the
Small
College
World.”
In
Debates
in
the
Digital
Humani-es,
ed.
MaAhew
K.
Gold.
Minneapolis:
University
of
Minnesota
Press,
2012.

9. Digital
Humanists
at
Small
Liberal
Arts
Colleges
• Angel
David
Nieves
&
Janet
Simons,
Hamilton
College
• Christopher
Blackwell,
Furman
University
• Kathryn
Tomasek,
Wheaton
College
• Laura
McGrane,
Haverford
College
• Jen
Rajchel,
Bryn
Mawr
College

10. NITLE
Digital
Humani,es
• Techne:
hAp://blogs.nitle.org
• Digital
Scholarship
Seminars
– February
3
at
2
pm
EST:
Building
Scholarly
Networks:
Digital
Humani,es
Commons
• DHCommons.org
• Gedng
Started
in
DH
– Lisa
Spiro,
Director,
NITLE
Labs

11. Curricular Connections to Digital
Humanities Research:
DHi s CLASS Program
(Culture, Liberal Arts Society Scholars)
Angel David Nieves
Associate Professor Chair of Africana Studies
Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi), Co-Director/Co-PI
Janet Thomas Simons
Associate Director, Instructional Technology
Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi), Co-Director/Co-PI

13. Multimedia Course Support
1. Extensive time investment by all involved
2. Find or create examples or models of expected
outcomes.
3. Collaborative Design - faculty with academic
support
4. Structure media assignments as a sequence of
learning experiences building upon each other
over the course of the semester so that content
can be assimilated simultaneously with critical
literacy's skill development.
5. Multiple Checkpoints for Evaluation.
6. Public presentations of students final projects and
process.
http://academics.hamilton.edu/mediascholarship/index.cfm?PATH=Recommendations.html

14. http://dhinitiative.org/projects/scaffold/

15. Curricular Initiatives New Models
Independent Projects
• Independent projects as versions of Course Support
• Alexander Benkhart
http://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/from-ancient-to-animation-discovering-japanese-heroines
• Cinema and New Media Studies Minor
http://www.hamilton.edu/academics/departments?dept=Cinema
• Research projects - Students and Faculty
• Alexander Benkhart
http://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/alex-benkhart-11-awarded-fulbright-to-japan
• Erica Kowsz
http://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/erica-kowsz-1-awarded-fulbright-to-canada
• Gabriela Arias
http://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/gabriela-arias-11-interns-at-museo-del-barrio

16. http://www.dhinitiative.org/projects/japanesefilm/demo

17. Culture Language Arts and Society Scholars
• Two week intensive training in digital approaches to humanities
based research.

19. Angel David Nieves
Associate Professor Chair of Africana Studies
Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi), Co-Director/Co-PI
anieves@hamilton.edu
Janet Thomas Simons
Associate Director, Instructional Technology
Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi), Co-Director/Co-PI
simons@hamilton.edu
http://www.dhinitiative.org
email: dhinitiative.@hamilton.edu

21. Discovery Insight
Christopher Blackwell
Furman University

22. Engaging primary sources.

23. Compilation, Alignment, Analysis Collaboration

24. Freely
seen
re-­‐used

25. Lists More Lists

26. christopher.blackwell@furman.edu · folio.furman.edu

27. Kathryn Tomasek,
Wheaton College
Wheaton College Digital History Project

31. Eliza Baylies Wheaton
Travel Journal
Pocket Diaries
Spring 2005
Summers 2005-2008

32. Encoding
Financial
Records
Day Book
Daily accounting of
transactions that reflect the
many business activities of
Laban Morey Wheaton
between 1828 and 1859
Payments
Rents
Land, equipment
Taxes
Postage
Labor
Purchases
Food
Fabrics and sewing supplies
Lumber and building supplies

33. Technologies of Argument:
Undergraduate Literary
Scholarship
Laura McGrane, Associate Professor
Haverford College
Jen Rajchel, Digital Initiatives Intern
Bryn Mawr College
Tri-College Digital Humanities Initiative
AACU 2012

34. Guiding Question
How do we create and evaluate new-media
undergraduate projects that produce
archival arguments?

35. … OR
Where’s the final paper?

36. Constructing the digital archive

37. Integrating Digital Collections
into the Curriculum
Fostering the undergraduate as scholar
• Encouraging new forms of close reading, knowledge
production and interpretation
Enabling original research that moves beyond a set
syllabus and a specific classroom

38. Crucial components
Multi-directional navigation
Balance between user- and architect-driven modes of
reading
Multi-media forms
Interdisciplinary synthesis
Student work as process versus product
Projects that open out into the public sphere

39. Digital Collections
ECCO (Eighteenth-Century Collections Online)
17th-18th Century Burney Coll. Newspapers
Early American Imprints
American Periodicals Series
ARTstor
EEBO (Early English Books Online)

40. Examples from Student
Archives
What follows are screen shots from one student’s digital
archive. In the “real” thing, all links are live (and many are
invisible here), and allow the reader to move through
primary texts and arguments freely.

41. Gastronomic Revolutions (Greg Toy, 2010)

42. Prior to the ratification of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776,
many American colonists had been engaged in political discussions and
disputes regarding the taxable status of essential food items. Indeed, due to
the successive English parliamentary acts that imposed tariffs on molasses,
sugar, and tea, the colonists had become conscious of the social implications
and political connotations of food. Although the Declaration of
Independence and the following Revolutionary War effectively ended
England s egregious political control over the American diet, remnants of
English culture still permeated the culinary landscape of America; though the
American colonies successfully achieved political independence, they still
remained culturally attached to England. Consequently, situated within this
revolutionary context, this archive endeavors to conceptualize the
changing relationship between England and America by examining the
changing culinary landscape as depicted in popular domestic guides and
cookbooks; through the juxtaposition and purposeful ordering of British
and American documents, this archive traces a second revolution.
(Gregory Toy, Fall 2010)

43. Most of the American fruits are extremely odoriferous, and therefore
are very disgusting at first to us Europeans: on the contrary, our fruits
appear insipid to them, for want of odour.
Samuel Pegge in The Forme Of Cury (1780)
1. Beef
2. Turkey
3. Salmon
2
4. American
Specialties 3
1
4
Main
Menu

44. Glasse, Hannah. The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. Alexandria: Cottom Stewart, 1805.
(Originally published in 1747 in London. Later reprinted in America)
The English Way
Choosing Beef
How would you characterize
each excerpt?
The American Way
Simmons, Amelia. American Cookery. Hartford: Hudson Goodwin, 1796.
Main
Menu

45. American Specialties
Simmons, Amelia. American Cookery. Hartford: Hudson Goodwin, 1796.
What makes these recipes uniquely
American?
Glasse, Hannah. The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. Alexandria: Cottom Stewart, 1805.
(Originally published in 1747 in London. Later reprinted in America)
Main
Menu

46. Evaluation
Close reading of rhetoric/terminology creation of an
argument
• Analysis of archives as constructed around categories/
metadata
• Ability to integrate course materials into an original
research project

47. Outcomes
Projects that move beyond the boundaries of the
classroom and individual institutions
Projects that encourage the reader and user to
roam freely, but within the constraints of an
argument
Recognition that design choices have theoretical
and cognitive impacts

48. The Undergraduate Thesis
Preparation for involvement in senior thesis work, and
larger projects that function trans-institutionally.

49. Jen Rajchel (BMC ‘11)
Mooring Gaps: Marianne Moore’s Bryn Mawr Poetry is a Bryn Mawr
College senior English thesis in the form of a website. This essay
explores three of Marianne Moore’s Bryn Mawr poems. It combines
close textual analysis of the poems with an interrogation of the
possibilities of a website as a critical form. My interpretation of
Marianne Moore’s work features three different analytic structures
(one for each poem) to suggest that new media allow for multi-
presentational critiques as well as multi-vocality.

50. Dramatizing poetic argument

51. Collaborating in new ways

52. Involving Undergraduates in
Institutional Conversations

53. Re:Humanities http://news.haverford.edu/blogs/rehumanities/
Tri-college Digital Humanities: http://www.brynmawr.edu/tdh/

54. Gabrielle Arias on
Soweto ‘76

55. 2011 Re:Hum Alums
Alexander Benkhart (Hamilton) Fulbright Scholar, Film
Digitization in Japan
Michael Suen (Middlebury) Outreach Coordinator, Learning
Games Network
Evan Donahue (Brown) Senior Quality Assurance Engineer,
Riverbed Technology
Evan McGonagill (Bryn Mawr) Systems Associate, Open
Society Institute
Ethan Joseph (Haverford), Operations Assistant, National
Symphony Orchestra

56. Challenges: How to Enhance
…
Direct ties between undergraduate humanistic
inquiry and private/public technologies
Opportunities for undergraduate institutions to
partner with each other and R1 universities
Opportunities for undergraduates to produce
original research and writing as active scholars and
citizens beyond individual classrooms

57. Further Conversation
For questions, comments and collaborative possibilities:
Laura McGrane: lmcgrane@haverford.edu
Jen Rajchel: jrajchel@brynmawr.edu