Week 1 (Aug 22, 24, 26):

Monday: Visualization, and What Does It Do for the Humanists?

Study Guide:

  • What are the basic types of visualizations? What can visualizations do in the humanities?
  • What criteria should we use to evaluate a visualization? Choose your favorite visualization from Vintage Visualizations to share in class. Write down one or two things it tells you a good visualization should have or should avoid.

Wednesday: Voyant 2.0, Lab and Practice

Friday: How to Read Texts from a Distance (“Distant Reading”)

Read:

Explore:

Study Guide:

  • Read the blog posts of Ted Underwood and Jacob Harris: Who has persuaded you?
  • Explore “Inaugural Words: 1789 to the Present”, which graphs the most-used words in each inaugural address from U.S. history, sized by number of uses. Pick two or three addresses for a close comparison. By looking carefully at these graphs (and without reading the full texts of the addresses), what can you infer about the addresses (such as changing concerns and rhetorical strategies)?