Welcome to Intro to DH

Dear I can’t believe this wild summer—was it really a summer?—is coming to an end, but the first meeting of “Introduction to Digital Humanities” is very soon! Here’s some important information that will help us get off to a good start together:

1. First, the syllabus for the class is nearly finalized, and you can find it on this very website. I want to be able to jump right into substance on our first day, so please look over the policies, assignments, and schedule prior to our meeting. We will quickly overview the syllabus, but bring questions about details that are unclear.
2. There will be no books to buy for the course—all our texts are either available in open-access online, or through the library. The former you will find through direct links on the course schedule while the latter can be found in a Leganto list. You will need to log in using your NU credentials to access the items in Leganto.
3. Thinking about readings, please note that we will have readings to discuss on our first day: the introductions to the various Debates in the Digital Humanities anthologies published since 2012. These will give a good sense of how DH has evolved over the past decade and hopefully give a good foundation for our subsequent work together.
4. We will meet in Zoom at the link I sent via email. If you need it again just let me know.
5. In general our classes will be divided into two parts: the first a discussion of readings and the second a practical lab in which we will develop our proficiencies for working with data. I’ll try to give you adequate warning if you will need to download software or sign up for anything. For our first day, you’ll want to sign up for a Github or Github Education account; the latter gives you advanced features for free, but requires you sending a bit of information verifying your student status. You might also download the Github Desktop application, which we’ll be using to learn about version control
6. Finally, I’ve set up a Discord server for my students in order to foster more frequent and informal modes of communication. This will be a place to drop quick questions about our labs or readings, offer each other technical support, and even joke around a bit. I’ll also be hosting my weekly student hours through Discord. Once you sign up, I’ll assign you to our class so you can see and participate in the text and voice/video channels devoted to Intro to DH. I’ll walk through Discord on day one, but if you wanted to get signed up and start chatting, feel free.