UNIV-1820: “Digital Re-Presentations of the Brass City”
| Rob Walsh | Fall 2024 |
| Waterbury Campus Library Director | Meeting Day: TBD |
| Robert.walsh@uconn.edu | Time: TBD |
| Office Hours: By Appointment | Location: TBD |
Course Description
What does publicly-engaged research involve? Why is it important? How can we share ideas in ways other than a traditional research essay? In ways that are more visual (or audible) than textual? In ways that encourage exploration, experimentation, and collaboration?
“Digital Re-Presentations of the Brass City” is an introduction to basic digital scholarship theories, practices, and tools to facilitate a deep and meaningful engagement with the community around our campus. Signifying the intersection of digital humanities, public humanities, and critical information literacy, this course presents a framework that is collaborative, process-focused, and seeks to identify and challenge oppressive structures, both within and without the classroom.1
As a first-year seminar, this course introduces students to the rigors of academic research, with particular emphasis on nurturing curiosity and developing critical sensibilities, which are essential for success in college (and in life), regardless of major. As students become proficient with digital scholarship tools that allow them to share ideas multimodally and with an audience beyond the instructor grading an assignment, they will be empowered to engage actively in academic and civic discourses.
The semester is divided into four “units,” each focusing on a different digital scholarship practice: story mapping, data visualization, digital content curation, and podcasting. The first week of each unit is an introduction to a specific tool and underlying theories and best practices. The second week of each unit involves collecting research and other appropriate artifacts with which students will apply the tool to engage, reuse, remix, and/or (re)present. Students will learn how to effectively identify and navigate a variety of information resources, including the web, various archives, library databases, data sources, and social media. For example, during the story mapping unit, students might use a newspaper archive to find articles, interviews, and/or photos relevant to a theme, historical or contemporary period, and/or place (e.g. neighborhood) of their choosing related to Waterbury. They will then use a tool such as StoryMapJS or HistoryPin to share their research geospatially. The third week of each unit is reserved for studio time, wherein students can experiment, collaborate, and create. Students’ work will be shared on a class WordPress site hosted by Humanities Commons, designed and curated by students themselves.
1 Digital Humanities emphasizes a critical engagement with the intersections between technology and how we act, think, and learn. Public Humanities incorporates a research framework in which faculty and students meaningfully engage with the community in the creation of knowledge. Critical Information Literacy aims for social change by empowering learners to expose and challenge oppressive power structures in the creation and circulation of information and knowledge.
A Note on Technology and Technical Skills
This course emphasizes digital scholarship tools that are freely available and do not have a prohibitive barrier to entry. Neither vast technical skills nor design savvy are required. Programming and coding skills are not a requisite. Proficiency with each tool is possible for anyone who is curious – it’s how your professor, who lacks any semblance of advanced technological prowess, learned these tools. A little curiosity coupled with a bit of collaboration goes a long way!
Learning Objectives
By the end of course, students will…
- develop foundational skills that ensure a successful acclimation to the academic rigors of UConn.
- engage with various literacies (information literacy, digital literacy, media literacy, and data literacy) that are essential for college success.
- be empowered to communicate with different audiences and in different contexts, using digital scholarship practices to document historical and contemporary social, political, economic, and cultural patterns in Waterbury.
- (This course will instill in students the sense that what they think and what they say and what they write matters—to me; to them; to their peers; and, to the world.)
- develop a critical framework to identify and challenge oppressive power structures related to the creation and circulation of information.
- establish a better relationship with their own creativity, through exploration, experimentation, sharing, risk-taking, and mistake-making.
Readings and Course Materials
Course readings will be minimal. When assigned, they will focus on how and why certain digital scholarship tools are used. All readings will be posted to HuskyCT. While not reading-intensive, students are regularly required to view examples of concepts and tools in action. This will provide students with a fundamental understanding of how they can engage with the tools in relation to the scope of the course. Supplemental video tutorials will be available for students to develop proficiencies with various digital scholarship tools. This content will also be available to students on HuskyCT.
Grading
Grading in this course is a bit different. You are expected to come to every class prepared and complete each assignment in a timely manner. At the end of the semester, you will receive a grade (it’s a university policy). But, I want to focus on authentic learning. To that end, assessment will be based on regular self-evaluation, open conversations about the purpose and meaning of our work, and professor and peer feedback.
Each unit of the course is worth 25%. Before the start of each unit, you will receive detailed information about my expectations for that unit. Throughout, the process will be weighed more heavily than the outcome.
Schedule
Course Overview (week 1)
WordPress Workshop (week 2)
Unit One: Story Mapping
- Introduction to theory, practice, and tools (week 3)
- Collecting “Artifacts” (week 4)
- Studio Session (week 5)
Unit Two: Data Visualization
- Introduction to theory, practice, and tools (week 6)
- Collecting “Artifacts” (week 7)
- Studio Session (week 8)
Unit Three: Digital Content Curation
- Introduction to theory, practice, and tools (week 9)
- Collecting “Artifacts” (week 10)
- Studio Session (week 11)
Unit Four: Podcasting and Oral Histories
- Introduction to theory, practice, and tools (week 12)
- Collecting “Artifacts” (week 13)
- Studio Session (week 14)
Research Symposium (week 15)