Assignment Overview

  • Students will work in small collaborative groups
  • Groups will conceive and propose a DH project
  • The class will work together to develop expectations and evaluation guidelines for this assignment
  • Groups will present their proposals as lightning talks in the final class of the semester

Assignment Acknowledgments

This assignment was developed from exemplars developed by Matthew Gold, Quinn Dombrowski, Alan Liu, and Jim McGrath, among many others who responded to this question.

Assignment Details

During this class we have overviewed (some of) the DH field and surveyed a range of tools and methods for analyzing humanistic data. We have not yet cultivated the kinds of expertise in a method that would allow you to create a project in full, nor will the few weeks available to us allow robust development. Instead of building a project, then, for your final exercise you will write a research proposal for the DH project you would pursue, given world enough and time (and expertise and funding). If this happens to be a project you actually expect to develop, all the better.

Possible Topics

Your project can be on any topic within DH (broadly understood). Drawing on proposal requirements from the NEH’s Office of Digital Humanities’ grant programs, for example, projects might include:

  • Research that brings new approaches or documents best practices in the study or the teaching of the digital humanities;
  • Planning and developing prototypes of new digital tools for preserving, analyzing, and making accessible digital resources, including libraries’ and museums’ digital assets;
  • Scholarship or studies that examine the philosophical or practical implications and impact of the use of emerging technologies in specific fields or disciplines of the humanities, or in interdisciplinary collaborations involving several fields or disciplines;
  • Innovative uses of technology for public programming and education utilizing both traditional and new media;
  • New digital modes of publication that facilitate the dissemination of humanities scholarship in advanced academic as well as informal or formal educational settings at all academic levels;
  • Projects that seek to understand and address the ethical, legal, and societal implications of artificial intelligence (A.I.); or
  • Training programs for scholars, humanities professionals, and advanced graduate students to broaden and extend their knowledge of digital humanities.

Proposal Models

Some models for these project proposals are the grant proposal, such as those submitted to the NEH ODH’s various programs, such as

However, I am open to other models of similar scope and complexity in another context, such as a proposal developed for a local campus or non-profit organization.

Proposal Format

Unless we discuss an alternative structure, your proposal should be 10-15 pages long and include the following elements, drawn from the NEH’s actual grant guidelines:

  1. Table of Contents
  2. Abstract: a clear, concise, one-page summary of your project and its contributions written for a non-specialist audience. Your abstract should convey the problem(s) your project solves and why it is innovative.
  3. List of Participants: This list can be theoretical and include participants by role (e.g. data scientist; book historian, Omeka developer) rather than name. In fact, for this classroom version of the proposal, you will probably have to make up at least some of your project’s team. Think broadly: who would you need to do this work effectively in the institutional context you are imagining?
  4. Narrative: which includes the following subsections:
    1. An explanation of the project’s activities and deliverables, noting their innovative qualities and their value to scholars, students, and general audiences in the humanities.
    2. An environmental scan that overviews related work, as in a literature review, noting how this project will address gaps or make corrections, but also how this project might adapt, expand, or otherwise build on prior work. The environmental scan should make it clear that the applicant is aware of similar work being done and should explain how the applicant’s proposed project contributes to and advances the field.
    3. A work plan detailing how data will be collected, how datasets and metadata will be structured, and methods and tools for using the data. The order and sequence of the proposed plan are more important than outlining specific dates.
    4. A brief description of the necessary project staff, including the project director and collaborators who would need to work on the project. As in #3, these can be described by role and may be invented.
    5. A description of the final product and how it will be shared/distributed
  5. Data management plan: this describing how data will be managed, stored, and documented during development work and how it will be sustained beyond the proposal’s timeline.
  6. Budget: The proposal should include a full budget and budget justification, both of which take institutional overhead into account. If you don’t know what “institutional overhead” is, don’t worry—we’ll discuss it.

An actual grant proposal would be a bit longer and include a few additional elements, such as letters of support, but these are not feasible for an in-class assignment. We will discuss this structure in class and I will recommend resources, such as sample proposals, you can consult as you plan and draft.

The primary goal of this assignment is to help you think not just about what DH tools are available, or what questions you might ask about/using them, but to prompt you to ground those ideas in practical implementation. What would you need to know to pursue the project you have in mind? What resources would you need? What kinds of collaboration or support would be required to realize your project’s goals? Where might you find those needed resources, tools, or collaborators?

In our final class together, you will briefly present your proposals in a lightning-talk format.

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