DIG 109 - Introduction to Digital Humanities: Social Justice Collections and Liberal Arts Curricula

Through a unique collaboration between ten peer colleges, this class uses college archives and collections as a multi-campus corpus to be investigated through innovative digital methodologies. In a multi-institutional collaborative effort, students will apply different digital humanities (DH) techniques, such as digital mapping, text analysis, and interactive digital exhibits, in order to formulate and address a research question about these collections. These questions will focus on activism, change, and social justice at the ten colleges. Students may examine forces of change that unfold slowly or may examine rapid “shocks to the system” like COVID-19, climate change, or political and economic upheaval. Topics might also include the nature of the social contract at our colleges, access and equity, health justice, racial justice, environmental justice, educational access and affordability, and more. 

The first half of the course will focus on the theoretical and practical underpinnings of the digital humanities, providing an introduction to some of the key methodologies of DH. The second half of the course revolves around a team-based project, in which students from different institutions work together to tackle their research question. Along the way, students will be guided by faculty, librarians, and archivists from several liberal arts colleges. By the end of the course, each team will release a public project that showcases their work. The class will combine synchronous and asynchronous instruction and is designed to accommodate students in multiple time zones. The course is offered online through LACOL and is limited to 10 Davidson students.

Satisfies one of the “Production, Methodology, Practice” requirements for the Digital and Screen Media major offered through CIS.
Satisfies requirement 1b: “One additional 100-, 200- or 300-level DIG course for the Digital Studies minor.
Satisfies Historical Thought requirement.