This course introduces important types and methods of the digital humanities (“DH”). Topics include the emergence of digital humanities as a field, “distant reading,” text encoding , text analysis (including various methods of quantitative analysis, topic modeling, and “word embedding”), artificial-intelligence “large language models,” social network analysis, and GIS mapping.

Voyant Tools analysis of William Wordsworth’s The Prelude (1850 version).

A key aspect of the course is the balance it seeks between ideas and technology. Far-reaching ideas about literature and other areas of social and cultural life are reexamined from a technological perspective, and, reciprocally, current technology is thought about in relation to far older and more extensive domains of technê (human arts and skills).

The course gives students a hands-on introduction to  digital humanities methods and tools through weekly practicums designed for beginners. Other assignments include two “project proposals” (proposals for digital-humanities projects that are explained and planned out, but due to time constraints in an academic quarter do not have to be executed).

Go to Main Course Site, or directly to:

• Schedule
• Assignments
• Practicums
• Bibliography
• Canvas Site