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School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics · ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
Digital technologies are redefining the landscapes of cultural expression, experiences, and performances, while also transforming the ways we study historical artefacts, communities, and societies. This course provides an in-depth exploration of how conceptual, critical, and theoretical understandings within humanities fields—including philosophy, history, and cultural and literary studies—are responding to these digital transformations. It also examines the insights these fields provide into the operations of digital technologies, how they should work, and how they might be used to advance knowledge and justice in contemporary society. Students will engage with key theories and debates in Digital Humanities, such as the relationship of historical and contemporary technologies and power relations to digital practices and platforms; the transformative impact of "Artificial Intelligence" technologies on understandings and experiences of agency, creativity, and community; the ethical issues surrounding digital collections and data usage, including questions of bias, privacy and legitimacy. Additionally, the course explores intersections of digital technologies and data visualisation with social justice and activism. Students will hear presentations from engaging guest speakers and experts in digital humanities research from across the ANU and Canberra's cultural organisations, gaining diverse perspectives on the leading-edge critical and conceptual frameworks and challenges.
Class participation
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Critical evaluation of a digital project (1000 words for 6 unit version)
Learning outcomes 1, 3, 4, 5
Online forum discussion (1000 words for 6 unit version)
Learning outcomes 2, 4, 5
Research project (2000 words for 6 unit version)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
For the 6 unit version of this course, 130 hours of total student learning time made up from: a) 36 hours of contact in a one-week intensive b) 94 hours of independent student research, reading and writing.
Not applicable Preliminary Reading Drucker, Johanna. The Digital Humanities Coursebook: An Introduction to Digital Methods for Research and Scholarship (Routledge, 2021). Schreibman, Susan, Ray Siemens, and John Unsworth, eds. A Companion to Digital Humanities, edited by (Blackwell, 2004). Gold, Matthew K. and Klein, Lauren F., eds. Debates in the Digital Humanities (University of Minnesota Press, 2019). O’Sullivan, James, ed. The Bloomsbury Handbook to the Digital Humanities (Bloomsbury, 2022). Winesmith, Keir and Suse Anderson, eds. The Digital Future of Museums: Conversations and Provocations (Taylor & Francis, 2020). Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong. Discriminating Data: Correlation, Neighbourhoods, and the New Politics of Recognition (MIT Press, 2021).