Spring 2019 Digital Humanities Certificate Classes

courses for the digital humanities certificate

Course offerings are subject to change. Contact department staff or faculty for the most up-to-date information.


American Studies

AMST 840: Digital Humanities/Digital American Studies

We 5:00 PM-7:50 PM, Greenlaw 319, Robert Allen

American Studies 840 is a topical graduate seminar exploring the relationship between tools and materials of digital humanities, on the one hand, and methods and approaches of American Studies on the other.  The Spring 2019 offering of this course will be organized around the history of North Carolina’s first and principal insane asylum, which opened as the North Carolina Asylum for the Insane in Raleigh in 1856 and became Dorothea Dix Hospital in 1959.  The hospital was closed in 2012.

This iteration of the course takes advantage of the ongoing research into the history of the hospital and its site, Dix Park, being conducted by the Community Histories Workshop in partnership with the City of Raleigh and the Dix Park Conservancy Board.  The work of the seminar will inform the planning process of transforming the 306 acre site into a “destination park.”

The key texts that will ground our research and discussion are admissions ledgers and patient histories covering all those admitted to the hospital between 1856 and 1918 – some 7400 admissions.  These records (opened for study for the first time by a recent change in the state’s open records law) reveal the name, age, occupation, marital status, county of residence, “supposed cause” of admission, diagnosis and length of stay (in some cases more than 30 years).  The CHW has created the first known comprehensive patient database for a nineteenth-century American asylum.  Another set of patient histories from 1887 to 1917 complements the admissions ledgers over this time period, providing more than 100 pieces of information about each patient.

Within these records, the assessing of “supposed cause” and classification of the form of the mental illness are of particular interest.  Among the events or conditions that could lead to commitment (voluntary or involuntary) to the asylum were “uterine trouble”, religious excitement, menopause, the death of a loved one, child birth, property loss, and, during and after the Civil War, the war. The patient population also included individuals suffering from epilepsy, syphilis, alcoholism, pellagra, and opioid addiction. We will explore the contemporaneous understandings of insanity, gender, race, disability, and sexuality expressed through these categories and diagnoses, and relate them to current understandings and debates.

Using digitized primary source material and archival records, the seminar will also work on case studies derived from the hospital records-tracking patients back to their families and communities.  The centerpiece of this part of the course will be the biography of the asylum’s first female patient, about whom more than 200 letters have been discovered in the UNC Southern Historical Collection.

We will also explore the social, intellectual, and political contexts of the American public asylum movement in the middle decades of the 19th century, particularly the “moral treatment” philosophy held by the first generation of asylum superintendents, who were creating the field of modern psychiatry through their diagnoses and treatment regimes.  This philosophy was also shared by advocates for humane treatment of the mentally ill, including, of course, Dorothea Dix herself, whose tireless lobbying of state legislators was a critical factor in the authorization of the hospital. A key part of the moral medicine approach was the architecture of the asylum itself.  We will explore the papers, designs, and correspondence of the asylum¿s architect Alexander Jackson Davis.

The work also engages with public history and public humanities, asking how these records and their availability in digital form could and should be made available to multiple audiences, academic researchers, clinicians and practitioners, students, the descendants of asylum patients, visitors to the repurposed park, and the general public.  We will consider the ethical, legal, and professional issues raised by this work.

In true American Studies fashion, the seminar is designed to gather learners and scholars from a wide range of (inter-)disciplinary perspectives and across multiple fields: various areas of historical inquiry, philosophy, psychology and psychiatry, nursing, pharmacy, public health, gender and sexuality studies, and health humanities, among them.  University staff and graduate students from Duke, NCSU, and North Carolina Central are welcome.


Anthropology

ANTH 419: Anthropological Applications of GIS

TuTh 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM, Carolina Hall 322, Colin West

Permission of the instructor. GIS experience required. This course explores applying GIS science technologies to anthropological problems. Students will learn GIS skills and apply them using spatial data.


 

Communications

COMM 431: Advanced Audio Production

MoWe 9:05 AM – 10:55 AM, Swain Hall 101A, Mark Robinson

Prerequisite, COMM 130 or 150; Grade of C or better in COMM 130; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite. Advanced analysis and application of the principles and methods of audio production.

 

COMM 635: Documentary Production

TuTh 2PM – 3:15 PM, Swain Hall 106A, Julia Haslett

Prerequisite, COMM 230. A workshop in the production of video and/or film nonfiction or documentary projects. The course will focus on narrative, representational, and aesthetic strategies of documentary production.

 

COMM 644: Documentary Production: First Person Filmmaking

TuTh 12:30PM- 1:45 PM, Swain Hall 106A, Julia Haslett

Prerequisite, COMM 230. Permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite. Students create documentaries emphasizing the filmmaker’s personal perspective and experience: essay, diary, and autobiographical films, and pieces in which the filmmaker performs a role for expressive or political ends. Significant class time is devoted to work-shopping student films.

 

COMM 654: Motion Graphics, Special Effects, and Compositing

MoWe 9:05AM – 10:05AM, Swain Hall 200A, Edward Rankus 

Prerequisites, COMM 130 or COMM 150 with a C or better, Department Consent Required. In this course course students will learn a wide range of post-production techniques for video projects, using primarily After Effects (and Photoshop to a lesser extent). Topics explored include: Compositing, that is to say the integration and collage-ing of multiple video/film/still/text layers. Motion Graphics deals with the movement through 2D and 3D screen space of these layers, and Visual Effects will consider the myriad ways one can distort, color manipulate, and modify these layers, or create such phenomena as clouds, fire, etc. Besides creating projects using these techniques, we will also screen and analyze how this form of image manipulation is used in television and motion pictures.

 

COMM 666: Media in Performance

MoWe 10:30AM – 12:00PM, Swain Hall 110, Joseph Megel 

In Media in Performance, students will acquire advanced skills and explore critical approaches that are necessary for creating advanced, professional multi-media works in concert with live performance. Working collaboratively, using text, music, and devising processes, students will refine their understanding of the concepts and processes of creating multi-media theatre and build performance works that marry live and mediated elements in a fully integrated experience.

 


Computer Science

COMP 410: Data Structures

MoWe 1:25PM – 2:40PM, Genome Sciences Bldg G100, Paul Stotts 

Prerequisite, COMP 401. The analysis of data structures and their associated algorithms. Abstract data types, lists, stacks, queues, trees, and graphs. Sorting, searching, hashing.

 

COMP 411: Computer Organization

TuTh 12:30PM – 1:45PM, Genome Science Building G100, Thomas Bishop 

Prerequisite, COMP 401. Digital logic, circuit components. Data representation, computer architecture and implementation, assembly language programming.

 

COMP 585: Serious Games

MoWe 11:15AM – 12:30PM, Sitterson 011, Diane Pozefsky

Fr 11:15AM – 12:30PM, Sitterson 155, Diane Pozefsky

Prerequisite, COMP 410 or 411. Concepts of computer game development and their application beyond entertainment to fields such as education, health, and business. Course includes team development of a game.

 


Education

EDUC 790-002: Design of Emerging Technologies for Education 

Tu 4:00PM-6:45PM, Peabody 204, Kihyun (Kelly) Ryoo

This is a project-based course. You will explore emerging technologies, such as augmented reality, virtual reality, games, and physical computing tools. You will also learn about the design thinking process and apply it to the design of emerging technologies to improve education based on your own interests. No programming skills are required.


English

ENGL 709: Technologies of Literary Production

Tu 12:00PM- 3:00PM, Dey 412, Heidi Kim 

This course introduces the history of technologies used to produce and circulate literature, from medieval Europe to the twenty-first-century. Proceeding chronologically, this history provides a broad overview of the material conditions of possibility for the emergence of literary form and genre in the Anglophone tradition.


 

Geography

GEOG 410: Modeling of Environmental Systems

TuTh 9:30AM – 10:45AM, Carolina Hall 0204, Conghe Song 

Uses systems theory and computer models to understand ecosystem energy and matter flows, such as energy flow in food webs, terrestrial ecosystem evapotranspiration and productivity, related to climate, vegetation, soils, and hydrology across a range of spatial and temporal scales.

 

GEOG 491: Introduction to GIS

TuTh 2:00PM – 3:15PM, Carolina Hall 0220, Paul Delamater

Prerequisite, GEOG 370. Permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite. Stresses the spatial analysis and modeling capabilities of organizing data within a geographic information system. (GISci)

 

GEOG 577: Advanced Remote Sensing 

TuTh 2:00PM – 3:15PM, Carolina Hall 0322, Conghe Song

Prerequisite, GEOG 370 or 477. Acquisition, processing, and analysis of satellite digital data for the mapping and characterization of land cover types. (GISci)

 

GEOG 591: Applied Issues in GIS

TuTh 11:00AM – 12:15PM, Carolina Hall 0322, Javier Arce Nazario

Prerequisite, GEOG 477, 491, or equivalent. Through a novel research workshop format, this graduate and undergraduate course explores political and geographical dimensions of technological change around key environmental issues–energy, water, and waste. The class is largely a research-project oriented course. Examples of the work produced can be found on the course’s page on Digital Atlases and Resource Pages.

 

GEOG 592: Geographic Information Science Programming

TuTh 9:30AM – 10:45AM, Carolina Hall 0322, Jun Liang 

Prerequisite, GEOG 370 or 491. This course will teach students the elements of GISci software development using major GIS platforms. Students will modularly build a series of applications through the term, culminating in an integrated GIS applications program.

 

GEOG 594: Global Positioning Systems and Applications

TuTh 12:30PM – 1:45PM, Carolina Hall 0322, Jun Liang 

Prerequisite, GEOG 370. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) fundamental theory, application design, post processing, integration of GPS data into GIS and GPS application examples (such as public health, business, etc.) will be introduced.

 


Information and Library Science

INLS 465: Understanding IT for Digital Collections

Th 2:00PM – 4:45PM, Manning 117, Woods

Prepares students to be conversant with information technologies that underlie digital collections in order to evaluate the work of developers, delegate tasks, write requests for proposals, and establish policies and procedures. Teaches students how to think about information technology systems and recognize and manage interdependencies between parts of the systems.

 

INLS 509: Information Retrieval

Section 001: Mo 5:45AM – 8:30PM, Manning 001, Jaime Arguello

Section 002: TuTh 9:30AM – 10:45AM, Manning 208, Staff

Study of information retrieval and question answering techniques, including document classification, retrieval and evaluation techniques, handling of large data collections, and the use of feedback.

 

INLS 512: Applications of Natural Language Processing

TuTh 9:30AM – 10:45AM, Manning 001, Stephanie Haas

Prerequisite: COMP 110, COMP 116, or COMP 121.
Students with graduate standing in SILS may take the course without the prerequisite. Applications of natural language processing techniques and the representations and processes needed to support them. Topics include interfaces, text retrieval, machine translation, speech processing, and text generation. Cross-listed as COMP 486.

 

INLS 520: Organization of Information

Section 001: Mo 5:45PM – 8:30PM, Manning 208, Elliot Hauser

Section 002: TuTh 11:00AM – 12:15PM, Manning 014, Melanie Feinberg

Section 003: TuTh 12:30PM – 1:45PM, Manning 001, Melanie Feinberg 

Introduction to the problems and methods of organizing information, including information structures, knowledge schemata, data structures, terminological control, index language functions, and implications for searching.

 

INLS 523: Intro to Database Concepts and Applications

Section 001: Mo 5:45PM – 8:30PM, Manning 117, Adam Lee

Section 002: TuTh 9:30AM – 10:45AM, Manning 001, Staff

Section 003: MoWe 10:10AM – 11:25AM, Bingham 101, Staff

Pre- or corequisite, INLS 161 or 461. Design and implementation of basic database systems. Semantic modeling, relational database theory, including normalization, indexing, and query construction, SQL.

 

INLS 525: Electronic Record Management

Tu 5:45PM – 8:30PM, Manning 001, Elizabeth Watson

Explores relationships between new information and communication technologies and organizational efforts to define, identify, control, manage, and preserve records. Considers the importance of organizational, institutional and technological factors in determining appropriate recordkeeping strategies.

 

INLS 541: Information Visualization 

MoWe 10:10AM – 12:25PM, Manning 307, Bradley Hemminger

An introduction to information visualization through reading current literature and studying exemplars. The course reviews information visualization techniques, provides a framework for identifying the need for information visualization, and emphasizes interactive electronic visualizations that use freely available tools. Students will construct several visualizations. No programming skills are required.

 

INLS 560: Programming for Information Professionals

Section 001: TuTh 9:30AM – 10:45AM, Manning 014, David Gotz

Section 002: Th 5:45PM – 8:30PM, Manning 001, Jason Carter

Online, David Gotz

Introduction to programming and computational concepts. Students will learn to write programs using constructs such as iteration, flow control, variables, functions, and error handling. No programming experience required.

 

INLS 572: Web Development I

Section 001: TuTh 11:00AM – 12:15PM, Manning 001, Joan Boone

Prerequisite, INLS 161 or 461. Introduction to Internet concepts, applications, and services. Introduces the TCP/IP protocol suite along with clients and servers for Internet communication, browsing, and navigation. Examines policy, management, and implementation issues.Introduction to programming and computational concepts. Students will learn to write programs using constructs such as iteration, flow control, variables, functions, and error handling. No programming experience required.

 

INLS 573: Mobile Web Development

Section 001: TuTh 11:00AM – 12:15PM, Manning 001, Joan Boone

An introduction to techniques and technologies for the development of mobile websites and applications. Topics include responsive web design, content strategy for mobile, performance considerations, using mobile frameworks, such as W3.CSS, Bootstrap, and Foundation. Basic Knowledge of HTML is required, and familiarity with CSS and JavaScript is recommended.

 

INLS 582: Systems Analysis

Section 001: MoWe 1:25PM – 2:40PM, Manning 307, Lukasz Mazur 

Section 002: Mo 5:45PM – 8:30PM, Manning 307, Uduak Ndoh

Section 003: We 5:45PM – 8:30PM, Manning 307, Andres Orphanides

Introduction to the systems approach to the design and development of information systems. Methods and tools for the analysis and modeling of system functionality (e.g., structured analysis) and data represented in the system (e.g., object oriented analysis) are studied. Undergraduates are encouraged to take INLS 382 instead of this course.

 

INLS 623: Database Systems II: Intermediate Databases

Th 5:45PM – 8:30PM, Manning 014, Staff

Prerequisites, INLS 382 or 582, and 523. Intermediate-level design and implementation of database systems, building on topics studied in INLS 523. Additional topics include MySQL, indexing, XML, and non-text databases.

 

INLS 718: User Interface Design

Tu 5:45PM – 8:30PM, Manning 208, Fei Yu

Prerequisite: INLS 582. Basic principles for designing the human interface to information systems, emphasizing computer-assisted systems. Major topics: users’ conceptual models of systems, human information processing capabilities, styles of interfaces, and evaluation methods.

 

INLS 740: Digital Libraries 

Online, Grace Shin

Research and development issues in digital libraries, including collection development and digitization; mixed mode holdings; access strategies and interfaces; metadata and interoperability; economic and social policies; and management and evaluation.

 

INLS 756: Data Curation and Management

Online, Helen Tibbo

Explores data curation lifecycle activities from design of good data, through content creator management, metadata creation, ingest into a repository, repository management, access policies, and implementation, and data reuse.

 

INLS 760: Web Databases

We 5:45PM – 8:30PM, Manning 001, Staff

Prerequisites: INLS 572 or equivalent, INLS 523 (623 recommended) and programming experience. Explores concepts and practice surrounding the implementation and delivery of Web-enabled databases. Students will gain experience with and evaluate PC and Unix Web database platforms.

 


Music

MUSC 676: Digital Media and Live Performance

TBA


Media and Journalism

MEJO 440: Digital Media Law and Society

MoWe 11:00AM – 12:15PM, Carroll 142, Robert Hoefges

Prerequisite, JOMC 340. Explains legal issues raised by Internet communication and guides students in thinking critically about how those issues can be resolved. Reviews how courts, other branches of government, the private sector, and legal scholars have responded to the Internet. Topics may include digital copyright, net neutrality, privacy, and Internet censorship abroad.

 

MEJO 582: Advanced Documentary Story Telling

TBA

Permission of the instructor. Students work on a semester-long documentary multimedia project that includes photo and video journalists, audio recordists, designers, infographics artists, and programmers. Open by application to students who have completed an advanced course in visual or electronic communication.

 

MEJO 712: Visual Communication and Multimedia

TBA

Focusing on the new communication technologies that have created new media, new language and new visual interfaces, this course introduces the student to principles and concepts of visual communication and design and how they are being used in this new cyber medium. Students will learn the rich history of visual images and the conceptual framework of visual communication.

They will examine elements of visual images to learn basic design theory and techniques. These visual information concepts will then be applied to the Internet. Students will learn to analyze how diverse visual elements are used in graphics and graphics design, page design, site planning and navigation, and computer system and human interface design, as well as usability, navigation and accessibility. This course is offered online. JOMC 712 is open to non-JOMC graduate students on a space-available basis.

 

MEJO 795: eHealth

Fr 12:30PM – 3:15PM, Carroll 338, Seth Noar

The purpose of the current seminar is to provide an opportunity for in-depth study of the eHealth field. We will examine the context of the digital age and what consumers are engaged in online with regard to health; the history of eHealth and its “roots”; interactivity and its relationship to eHealth; the variety of eHealth applications that exist, including Internet websites, computer-tailored interventions, health video games, avatars, interactive voice response technology, text-messaging interventions, mobile “apps,” social media, and others; eHealth design and evaluation strategies; implementation and dissemination research and its application to eHealth; policy issues that influence the eHealth field; issues related to adapting to a rapidly changing eHealth field; and future directions for eHealth practice and research.

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