Digital Studies

Associate Professor: Sample (Director)
Assistant Professor: Dietrick, Kabala
Visiting Associate Professor: Mundy

The Digital Studies interdisciplinary minor provides a framework for studying the digital tools, cultures, and practices that permeate everyday life. These tools, cultures, and practices shape how we work, play, communicate, and learn. Understanding the social and historical contexts of these technologies is a fundamental part of Digital Studies.

Digital Studies courses range across three broad areas: digital creativity, which includes digital art and digital storytelling, transmedia production, and programming; digital culture, which focuses on the communities, practices, and counter-practices that digital technology has given rise to; and digital methodology, in which digital tools are used to quantitatively or qualitatively analyze, map, and share text or data.

Designed to complement majors in every department and program, the Digital Studies interdisciplinary minor bridges usual distinctions between the sciences and the humanities, between empiricism and interpretation. Combining theory and practice, DIG courses foster liberal arts practices essential for the 21st century: procedural literacy, data awareness, network sensibilities, entrepreneurial thinking, digital citizenship, information preservation and sustainability, and the ethical use of technology.

Requirements

The Digital Studies Interdisciplinary minor requires six courses, including an introductory class and a 400-level seminar:
1. DIG 101 Introduction to Digital Studies
2. One additional 100-, 200- or 300-level DIG course, which includes the following:
3. Three electives related to digital culture, digital creativity, or digital methodology that foster skills and knowledge transferrable across disciplines. These electives may include any other DIG courses above, any of the approved courses below, or any combination thereof:
  1. ANT 261 Science, Policy, and Society
  2. ANT 291 Social Networks & Social Media
  3. ANT 372 Visualizing Anthropology
  4. ANT 377 Imaging the Earth
  5. ART 111 Introduction to Digital Art
  6. ART 270 - Special Topics in Digital Art: Art for Games
  7. ART 211 Advanced Digital Art
  8. BIO 256 Applied Insect Ecology
  9. COM 325 COM 325 - Exploring Fake News
  10. COM 315 Media Effects (= SOC 315)
  11. POL 284 US Diplomacy
  12. (Only one of these CSC electives can count toward the interdisciplinary minor; none can count if DIG 120 is taken.)
    1. CSC 108 Explorations in Computer Science
    2. CSC 121 Programming and Problem Solving
    3. CSC 200 Computational Physics (= PHY 200)
    4. CSC 209 Bioinformatics Programming (= BIO 209)
  13. ECO 316 Computational Economics
  14. EDU 291 Data in Education
  15. ENG 211 Filmmaking
  16. ENG 306 - Digital Design
  17. FMS 321 Interactive Digital Narratives
  18. HIS 207 Digital Medieval History
  19. HIS 245 Digital History of Early American Knowledge
  20. HIS 264 - The Digital Mexican Revolution
  21. MUS 265 Introduction to Digital Music Composition
  22. MUS 311 - Music Technology and Production
  23. MUS 385 Video Game Music (=FMS 385)
  24. PHY 397 Independent Study in Advanced Software Development in Science
  25. THE 270 THE 270 - Entertainment Design in the Digital Age
    Note: Additional courses emphasizing digital tools, digital practices, or digital culture may be added to this list, pending approval from the Digital Studies Advisory Committee.
4. DIG 401 Hacking, Remixing and Design OR DIG 404 - Humanities Startup
No more than two courses may count toward both the student’s major and the Digital Studies Interdisciplinary minor.
No more than one elective may be an independent study.

Application Procedure

The Digital Studies interdisciplinary minor is administered by the Digital Studies program. The faculty liaison is Dr. Mark Sample. To declare a Digital Studies interdisciplinary minor, students should meet with Dr. Sample by the last day of fall semester of the junior year. The student and faculty liaison will discuss courses used to satisfy the requirements. If one of the proposed electives is an independent study, the student shall provide for the Digital Studies program’s approval a written description of that course prior to the term of enrollment. Certification of completion of all the requirements for the interdisciplinary concentration is made by the Registrar upon the recommendation of the Digital Studies faculty.