Week Two Class Readings, Exercises, and Assignments

Monday: 9/8

  • Reading:
    • Read one another’s blog posts
    • Finish reading Linn’s letter to his mother and report back on legibility and general sense of subject matter
  • Introduction of Transcription assignment
  • Lab: Transcription assignment, part 1

Wednesday: 9/10

  • Reading: Civil War, episode 2
  • Lab: Transcription assignment, part 2

Friday: 9/12

  • Meeting with Isabella O’Neill, Head of Bucknell Special Collections/University Archives

Blog Post #1 Assignment – Prompt

Blog #1: “On Material and Digital Archives”
Due: 9/5
Prompt: This week you have visited several websites that are based on archival materials.  Go to the Sample DH Project link again (yes, it looks new). Look at the projects again.  How are the projects categorized?  Look especially at the ones that are categrized under Archive.  What are some of the advantages to creating a digital artifact from archival documents?  What are some of the disadvantages? What challenges might you have to navigate as you build your digital humanities project?

Reminder: give your post the category “Blog #1”; add two images to the post, and include five tags that you think reflect the work that you submit. Please review the Blog Assignment description and rubric and email me with any questions you may have.

Exercise #1: Trial post to website

Prompt:

Choose one of the sample DH projects on this site.

  • Given the six categories of DH approaches we have outlined e.g. distant reading, visualization, mapping, what is the primary DH focus of this website?
  • Is there a secondary approach addressed in the project?
  • How does method fit with the scholarly subject matter?
  • In what way does the medium of the subject matter determine the choice of mode of digital representation?

Your post should be 300-350 words and should include 2 visual components. Make sure you give your post the category “Trial Post.”

This exercise is due Sunday night by 11pm. Once you have published your post, read your classmates’ posts. We will discuss your observations and experiences in class on Monday.

This exercise is worth 1 pt. toward your Participation mark.

 

Week One Class Readings, Exercises, and Assignments

Week 1 (9/1-9/5)

For Monday’s class:

  • Complete Blog Exercise, “On Considering the Digital”
  • Read your classmates’ blog posts.

In Monday’s class:

  • Blog exercise discussion and review

For Wednesday’s Class:

  • View The Civil War, episode 1 (streaming video available in course Moodle site)

In Wednesday’s Class:

  • Discussion of documentary
  • Introduction to transcription, part 1

For Friday’s class:

  • Read the Robert Bonner Introduction to The Soldier’s Pen: Firsthand Impressions of the Civil War. (available on this site via “Assigned Readings” link – this page is password protected, so you will need the password in order to access the readings.)

In Friday’s Class:

  • Discussion of reading
  • Introduction to transcription, part 2

Assignment due:

  • Blog #1, “On Material and Digital Archives” (by 11pm)

Welcome!

Welcome to Humanities 100: Digging into the Digital! This new course is designed as a project-based introduction to digital humanities tools and methods of analysis.

James Merrill Linn

James Merrill Linn

Our subject this term is James Merrill Linn, one of the first graduates at Bucknell (class of 1855) and a captain in the Grand Army of the Republic during the American Civil War. Linn’s family left his life papers to Bucknell’s Archive. Because of the sheer quantity of notes, diaries, letters, drawings, business accounts and documents we can only focus on a small sliver of Linn’s life. We will therefore address a period of two months during 1862 when Linn took part in a military campaign in North Carolina under the leadership of General Ambrose Burnside.

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