Course Policies
Course Policies
Caveat Emptor
I am committed to teaching digital humanities as an applied field, and so you should be aware of the following caveats as we begin. Thanks to Miriam Posner for writing the first draft of these caveats for her DH grad course nearly a decade ago. If you can face these challenges with persistence, verve, and (reasonably) good humor—and abide by the code of conduct outlined below—we should have an intellectually enlivening semester. If you have any concerns about these caveats, please come talk to me. I am confident we can find a way forward if we work together.
1. You will be required to acquire some technical skills.
I do not require or assume any particular technical experience as we begin this course, but I will expect you to be willing to experiment with new tools and learn new technical skills throughout the semester. “I’m not very technical” will not excuse you from the hands-on portions of the course any more than “I’m not poetic” would excuse you from reading Emily Dickinson in a survey of American literature. Some of the tools we test you may find useful for your research, teaching, or professional work; some you will not. But I expect you to try them with enthusiasm and an open mind.
2. The course will itself be an experiment.
By combining theory and praxis, a course such as this opens itself up to many quirks: the syllabus may shift; a given tool might not work as expected; an experiment might veer off track or fail altogether. In other words, this course will require both an inventive spirit and patience from its students.
3. You may (and perhaps should) do different things.
This course has no set prerequisites, and students come to it with a range of backgrounds, goals, and prior technical expertise. The primary challenge in teaching this course is balancing students’ distinct aptitudes and needs: I neither want to leave students new to particular technologies behind, nor for students with prior experience to feel unchallenged. While our labs will be structured to presume no prior experience, every lab could be approached differently by those with expertise. For example, while I’ll likely teach our network analysis lab using Gephi (a GUI application), one could very easily experiment with network libraries in Python or R instead. This course will benefit you most in the long term if you challenge yourself rather than settling for the easiest option, and if you use our labs to extend your capabilities rather than repeat what you already know. As I describe more fully in the grading and assessment section, I am committed to recognizing and supporting such efforts, even if they “fail.”
4. You will not produce a final seminar paper.
You will produce a final, collaborative “project proposal” that will ask you to consider what facet of DH you could imagine exploring further. Likely this project will require substantial writing, but it will not look like a 20 page seminar paper at semester’s end. They will ask you to consider both theoretical and practical aspects of creating a DH project and may include thinking about things such as staffing, budgets, and technical capacities. These projects may well lead into more established forms of writing or publication, but we will not begin there.
5. You will collaborate (not just do group work).
Digital humanities projects often require collaboration among scholars who bring different intellectual and technical skills to expansive projects. This class will require you to work together both in class and for some of your assignments, distributing responsibilities and sharing credit. This will include the final project proposal described in #4!
Code of Conduct
The code of conduct for this course borrows directly from the stellar model outlined by Northeastern’s Feminist Coding Collective. Their Code of Conduct and Community Guidelines are well worth consulting in full, but I have copied and lightly adapted those items most pertinent to the work we will do in our class.
- It’s okay not to know: Assume that no one inherently knows what we’re learning. We all come to this class with different backgrounds and abilities; none of us (including the instructor) will know everything and that is okay! Encourage a space where it’s okay to ask questions.
- Be respectful: Do not use harmful language or stereos that target people of all different gender, abilities, races, ages, ethnicities, languages, socioeconomic classes, body s, sexualities, and other aspects of identity.
- Online spaces: Respect each other in both physical and digital spaces.
- Collaborative and inclusive interactions: Avoid speaking over each other. Instead, we want to practice listening to each other and speaking with each other, not at each other.
- Use “I” statements: focusing on your own interpretation of a situation, rather than placing blame or critiquing someone else.
- Harassment clause: The following behaviors are considered harassment and unacceptable in this community (these are borrowed from the Django Code of Conduct):
- Violent threats or language directed against another person.
- Discriminatory jokes and language.
- Posting sexually explicit or violent material.
- Posting (or threatening to post) other people’s personally identifying information (“doxing”).
- Personal insults, especially those using racist or sexist terms.
- Unwelcome sexual attention.
- Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior.
- Repeated harassment of others. In general, if someone asks you to stop, then stop.
Zoom & Camera Policy
This is an online course, but it is at heart a discussion based seminar. While I will have context to offer on many our topics and readings, I will not lecture on any day. Our discussion sections are just that: discussions among the group, stemming from our readings and the questions you will pose in your discussion prompts.
I understand the many reasons why students choose to keep their cameras off on Zoom. I often keep my camera off in big group meetings, where it can be exhausting to perform for the cameras for long periods when there is no indication anyone is paying attention. At the same time, teaching is at some level a performance, and it would be impossible to overstate how difficult is is to teach enthusiastically and effectively when staring at a panel of silent, black squares. Watching faces and hearing voices are key ways that humans assess engagement, and both I and your colleagues will benefit from both. In class, I will be paying attention to your faces and voices to determine what is and isn’t making sense, when we might need to change direction, and how each discussion is progressing.
To that end, while I will not require you to keep cameras on at all times, I would ask that you do so whenever possible, and particularly when you are actively contributing to our discussion.
Academic Integrity*
The iSchool has the responsibility for maintaining academic integrity so as to protect the quality of education and research in our school and to protect those who depend on our integrity. Consequences of academic integrity infractions may be serious, ranging from a written warning to a failing grade for the course or dismissal from the University.
See the student code for academic integrity requirements: http://studentcode.illinois.edu/article1/part4/1-401/
Statement of Inclusion*
https://diversity.illinois.edu/about/senate-diversity-resolution/
As the state’s premier public university, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s core mission is to serve the interests of the diverse people of the state of Illinois and beyond. The institution thus values inclusion and a pluralistic learning and research environment, one which we respect the varied perspectives and lived experiences of a diverse community and global workforce. We support diversity of worldviews, histories, and cultural knowledge across a range of social groups including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, abilities, economic class, religion, and their intersections.
Religious Observances*
In keeping with our Statement of Inclusion and Illinois law, the University is required to reasonably accommodate its students’ religious beliefs, observances, and practices in regard to admissions, class attendance, and the scheduling of examinations and work requirements.
Religious Observance Accommodation Request form: https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?UnivofIllinois&layout_id=19
Other accommodations may be available.
Accessibility Statement*
To insure disability-related concerns are properly addressed from the beginning of the semester, I request that students with disabilities who require assistance to participate in this class contact me as soon as possible to discuss your needs and any concerns you may have. The University of Illinois may be able to provide additional resources to assist you in your studies through the office of Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES). This office can assist you with disability-related academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids. Please contact them as soon as possible by visiting the office in person: 1207 S. Oak St., Champaign; visiting the website: http://disability.illinois.edu; calling (217) 333-4603 (V/TTY); or via e-mail disability@illinois.edu. NOTE: I do not require a letter from DRES in order to discuss your requested accommodations.
Land Acknowledgment*
Suggested by Native American House:
I recognize and acknowledge that we are on the lands of the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Piankashaw, Wea, Miami, Mascoutin, Odawa, Sauk, Mesquaki, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Chickasaw Nations. These lands were the traditional territory of these Native Nations prior to their forced removal; these lands continue to carry the stories of these Nations and their struggles for survival and identity.
As a land-grant institution, the University of Illinois has a particular responsibility to acknowledge the peoples of these lands, as well as the histories of dispossession that have allowed for the growth of this institution for the past 150 years. We are also obligated to reflect on and actively address these histories and the role that this university has played in shaping them. This acknowledgment and the centering of Native peoples is a start as we move forward for the next 150 years.
Graduate Academic Support & Tutoring:*
The iSchool Writing Resources is the in-house writing support team for graduate students at the iSchool. They are here to help you with your writing and help you feel more comfortable and confident in your skills. The writing consultants are not professors or evaluators. They simply know the struggles of graduate and undergraduate-level writing and want to help you learn how to succeed and improve your writing skills. The iSchool writing consultants can help you with every step of the writing process. For detailed information on our services please visit our website: