Engl507

Objectives and Expectations

By the seminar’s end, you will be expected to:

• Via multiple research logs that use a distributed revision control system, document and share the iterative development of your own research project (this process of documenting and sharing the iterative development of your work should correspond with scholarly practices conducted outside of this seminar, including writing a thesis/dissertation, collaborating on a data-driven or code-based project, and working in a laboratory);
• Via seminar discussions and workshops, review the work of other practitioners, provide feedback on that work (in writing and verbally), and evaluate it based on emerging guidelines published by the Modern Language Association;
• Persuasively present your work during a collaborative, public roundtable consisting of at least three people and intended (at least hypothetically) for a specific, forthcoming conference, which you should identify and to which you could submit a proposal;
• Effectively model and test a computational approach to literature and culture, and then integrate that approach into a scholarly, web-ready essay intended for a specific academic journal or venue, which you should identify and to which you could ultimately submit your work; and,
• Verbally and in writing, articulate the affordances of specific computational approaches to literature and culture (including their benefits and limitations) based on a combination of media theory and technical practice.

In terms of techniques and competencies for conducting digital literary studies, you should gain familiarity with:

• Revision control and versioning;
• Basic programming;
• Data modelling, curation, provenance, and interoperability;
• Data forensics and emulation;
• Translating media theory and history into technical practice, and vice versa;
• Data visualization, topic modelling, and text analysis;
• Interaction and interface design; and
• Reviewing and assessing digital projects.