The DLA will host a bi-monthly faculty reading group to explore themes and issues in the digital liberal arts by discussing peer-reviewed articles, short books, blog posts, digital projects, and websites. This fall, we will examine the complex, contentious landscapes of the digital and spatial humanities. Led by Alicia Peaker and Anne Knowles, the reading group is an open forum for learning about the plurality of approaches and critically assessing their applications in digital projects.

Faculty are welcome whenever they can come. Watch this space for session readings.

Logistics:

We will meet every other Friday from 1:30 – 3: 00 P.M. at Alicia’s house (email dla@middlebury.edu for address). Coffee, tea, and light refreshments will be offered.

Sept 26th – Intro to DH and digital liberal arts

Readings:

• Drucker, Johanna. “Humanistic Theory and Digital Scholarship.”
• Kirschenbaum, Matthew. “What is the Digital Humanities and What’s It Doing in English Departments?”
• Pannapacker, William. “Stop Calling it Digital Humanities: And 9 other strategies to help liberal-arts colleges join the movement.
• Hockey, Susan. “The History of Humanities Computing.” (optional)

Oct 10th –  Network analysis & visualizations

• Weingart, Scott. “Demystifying Networks.”
• Moretti, Franco. “Network Theory, Plot Analysis.”
• Project: Mapping the Republic of Letters
  • Case Study 1: Ben Franklin
  • Case Study 2: Voltaire

Oct 24th – Spatial humanities

• Bodenhamer, David. “Bodenhamer Potential of Spatial Humanities.”
• Cooper & Gregory. “Cooper&Gregory Lake District 2011.”
• Gigliotti, et al. “Gigliotti et al. From the Camp to the Road.”

Nov 7th – Digital pedagogies

• Sample, Mark. “Building and Sharing (When You’re Supposed to be Teaching).”
• Ross, Nancy. “Teaching Twentieth Century Art with Gender and Data Visualizations.”
• Morris, Sean. “Digital Pedagogy: A Case of Open or Shut.”
• Examples of assignments and student work (optional):
  • Croxall, Brian. Assignments for Introduction to Digital Humanities course at Emory.
  • Various student projects from Susan Smulyan’s 2010 Digital Scholarship course at Brown.

Nov 21st – Critiques of the Digital Humanities

• Bailey, Moya. “All the Digital Humanists are White, All the Nerds are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave.”
• Nakamura, Lisa. “Economies of Digital Production in East Asia: iPhone Girls and the Transnational Circuits of Cool.”
• Risam, Roopika & Adeline Koh. “Postcolonial Digital Humanities.”
  • Project: Rewriting Wikipedia, led by Adeline Koh and Roopika Risam

Dec 5th – Reflections and Next Steps

• No readings this week. Discussion questions will be circulated via email. Contact Alicia Peaker (apeaker[at]middlebury[dot]edu) for more information.