HIST 630: Digital Methods for Historical Research
Semester: Spring 2023
Time: Tuesday 1:35-4:25
Location: Glasscock 206 / LAAH 433

Instructor of Record: Dr. Daniel L. Schwartz
Email: daniel.schwartz@tamu.edu
Office Location: LAAH 441 (not Glasscock!)
Office Hours: by appointment

Associate Instructor: Dr. Lauren Liebe
Email: leliebe@tamu.edu
Office Location: LAAH 449
Office Hours: by appointment

Course Description

Introduction to formal methods of analysis in historical research using computers; and applying quantitative methods to research problems.

Course Goals

Digital History, and Digital Humanities more broadly, encompasses a tremendously wide set of research methodologies and scholarly practices. No one course could possibly do justice to all of them.

This course takes a skills-oriented approach to Digital History and indeed focuses on one method for doing Digital History: text encoding. Students will learn how to use the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) standard of Extensible Markup Language (XML) to encode textual material. They will also learn a range or coding skills important for producing, editing, documenting, presenting, and preserving a digital project.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course you will

  • Understand XML and text encoding as digital research methodologies for historical research.
  • Apply a range of XML programming technologies to historical research: TEI, XQuery, XPath, RegEx, ODD, Schematron, HTML, CSS, and Markdown.
  • Use GitHub to work collaboratively and share historical research.
  • Develop a digital research project using XML programming technologies.
  • Write digital project documentation using a combination of traditional prose and technical methodologies.

Prerequisites

Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

Required Textbook:

Anderson and Wicentowski, XQuery for Humanists, TAMU Press, 2020.

Required Hardware:

Students will all need to have access to a laptop to which they have permission to add software. You should bring that laptop to all class sessions. All required software is either open source or otherwise free of charge. We will learn how to download this software as part of learning how to use it.

Online Resources

In addition to the required textbook, additional readings will be available through course reserves or on Canvas. This course will also make use of The Programming Historian website and the university’s subscription to inLearning as a way to learn and practice digital skills in advance of in-class labs where we will take these skills further.

Expectations

You will note in the class schedule that every class meeting has a heading for Ludi. This is a Latin word we’ll translate here as “play things.” I have chosen this term because I want us all to think of class time as an opportunity to experiment, collaborate, offer feedback, and troubleshoot difficulties. In short, you should come to class expecting to play around with the course material, topics, and skills you will begin learning outside of class. This approach means there is a high likelihood that sometimes things won’t work, or at least that they won’t work as intended. We should all expect this kind of “failure.” But failure can be productive. Let’s all come to class ready to play, have fun even, and learn as we go.

Acknowledgements

I read many course syllabi in designing this syllabus but drew most heavily on one by Michelle M. Taylor and David A. Michelson. They taught “Special Topics in the Digital Humanities: Encoding Culture,” at Vanderbilt University in spring 2019.