General

Course Info

Yale University
Introduction to Digital Humanities II Computational Approaches to Culture

Spring 2023
SPAN 846

William L. Harkness Hall 002
Wednesdays, 1:30PM–3:20PM

Instructor

Prof. Alex Gil
Office: Humanities Quadrangle, Room 439
In Person Office Hours: Mondays, 1:30pm–3:30PM.
For asynchronous help, please join our course Yale X-DH Slack channel.
e-mail: alex.gil@yale.edu

Course Format

This course will take two distinct forms: a seminar, where we will read and explore together, and a digital studio, where you will receive tutorials and work in teams to practice and learn. In addition, you will be asked to participate in asynchronous community on our Slack channel.

Requisites

An interest in questions of art, history, law, culture, philology and philosophy—in short, all that we shape, which shapes us in return… and a computer.

Course Materials

All readings in this course will be provided free to you. With a few exceptions, you will find the appropriate links for all course materials in the course schedule.

Assessment and Grading

• 20% Class Engagement
• 20% Pair Presentations
• 20% Breaking Down a Text or Corpus Analysis Paper
• 20% Midterm Exam

• 20% (Editing the) Final Paper

• +20% Bonus Round

To learn more, please visit the assignments page.

Fundamentals of Computing

Even though there are no technical requirements prior to you joining the class, you will be expected to play with new tools and learn new concrete technical skills throughout the semester. Even though you will be exposed to several “user friendly” tools and genres of Digital Humanities, the accent will be placed on symbolic computation. This will involve a completely different way of understanding and using your computer for many of you. The course is designed to guide you through these beginner steps in a way that hopefully minimizes the sense of alienation you may feel. These “fundamentals” serve as the basis for most artisanal practices in the Digital Humanities and beyond. In this sense, the course also serves as a friendly introduction to computation for Humanities majors or graduate students. You will not be expected to be a full-time programmer at the end of the course, or even “learn how to code,” not even close, but you will be expected to understand many related concepts, and even do a thing or two using symbols instead of clicks. For example, you will learn how to read tutorials, solve problems, re-use the code of others, and if we work hard it together, even write some simple scripts—humble fragments of working code.

Modalities of Engagement

I learned the ropes of Digital Humanities with a cohort of graduate students, as part of the Praxis Program at the University of Virginia. Over the course of an academic year, our cohort worked to build a tool that allowed users to annotate a shared text, and compare their annotations after—team and project were central to my own learning. In order to be able to build Prism, the Praxis Program taught us the fundamentals of computing, design, project management, and collaboration. Since then, collaboration has been a mainstay of my professional practice. I do not expect any of you to be a natural at it. My own cohort surely had growing pains. True collaboration, presence and engagement with each other will be our overriding aspiration in this course. Below are some considerations in the form of a code of conduct to get us started thinking about our work together.

This code of conduct borrows from the stellar model outlined by Northeastern’s Feminist Coding Collective combined with our tenets at the xpmethod lab at Columbia University, with a special shoutout to this tweet by Miriam Posner.

• It’s okay not to know: Assume that no one inherently knows what we’re learning. We all come to this class with different backgrounds and abilities; none of us (including the instructor) will know everything and that is okay! Encourage a space where it’s okay to ask questions.
• Be respectful: Do not use harmful language or stereotypes that target people of all different gender, abilities, races, ages, ethnicities, languages, socioeconomic classes, bodies, sexualities, and other aspects of identity. Respect each other in both physical and digital spaces.
• Architectures of power: Be mindful of the room’s physical arrangement. HQ307 was designed for a now musty pedagogical model. At the beginning of digital studio and seminar we will re-arrange chairs away from the unidirectional arrangement. Locations of power, such as the lectern or the center of the room, should be systematically ceded or inverted.
• Economy of attention: Think carefully of other people’s time. Yield the floor and delegate authority. Come to definite conclusions that let people know that you are done. Conversations should move to various islands. Structure and preparation is a sign of respect for your audience. Ask questions. Listen more than you speak.
• Polyglossia: Help bring a multiplicity of voices into the space. Allowing other voices to be heard means also moderating one’s own. Be aware of the strength and the reach of your voice. Soliloquies should be punctured by moments of quietude and reflection, giving time and space to those hesitant to join in the discussion. Watch for cues of others trying to speak but being interrupted or denied the opportunity.
• Ethics of shared labor: Make labor visible. Keep a manifest of project work done, to the extent possible. Be aware of credit hierarchies. Prioritize the exposure of junior colleagues. Outside of class, credit the involved collectives and encourage others to read through the records carefully for granular attribution.
• COVID-19 awareness: This semester we continue our ongoing experiment in adjusting to the post- we’ve been waiting for and which will probably remain that, the condition of waiting. Please be mindful of other’s own comfort or discomfort with our renewed proximities.
• Academic Integrity: Please refer to Yale’s regulations for more information.

Accessibility

Our institution values diversity and inclusion; we are committed to a climate of mutual respect and full participation. Our goal is to create learning environments that are usable, equitable, inclusive and welcoming. If there are aspects of the instruction or design of this course that result in barriers to your inclusion or accurate assessment or achievement, please notify me, your instructor, as soon as possible. Disabled students are also welcome to contact Student Accessibility Services to discuss a range of options to removing barriers in the course, including accommodations.

Acknowledgments

In developing this course, I learned from many people, but I particularly thank Roopika Risam, Melanie Walsh, Ted Underwood, Dennis Tenen, Lauren Klein, Marisa Parham, Jonathan Reeve, Ryan Cordell, Mark Sample, Miriam Posner, Jentery Sayers, and Whitney Trettien for graduate syllabi and ideas from which I drew particular inspiration. In general, I would not be introducing you to Digital Humanities today if it wasn’t for Bethany Nowviskie, Jeremy Boggs, Wayne Graham, David McClure, and the rest of the Scholars Lab crew at the University of Virginia, circa 2010. They taught me many of the fundamentals I hope to pass on to you this academic year.