Executive Summary
At Warwick the Digital Humanities is not part of the taught curriculum (except within the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies for a limited cohort at MA level; and on one IATL module which I convene for undergraduates). This project seeks to draw in innovative practice from elsewhere, including Trinity College Dublin (home of the world’s largest PhD programme in Digital Arts and Humanities (DAH)) and King’s College London’s Digital Humanities Department (which hosts “the largest and most prestigious department of its kind anywhere”, according to its website), and to reflect on the landscape at Warwick. Its aim is to enable Warwick to develop its own distinctive, cutting-edge approach to Digital Humanities teaching.
- The project will make it easier for academics to incorporate aspects of the Digital Humanities into their own research-led modules. It aspires to encourage academics to introduce a number of modules within Departmental contexts containing a strong Digital Humanities element. This will be achieved by providing several “frameworks” for the integration of Digital Humanities into existing and new modules, written up and also disseminated through Window on Teaching and Teaching and Learning showcases (e.g. “Digital Storytelling and assessment”). These will offer direct guidance and signpost appropriate support from across the University.
- Students from the 2015/16 academic year will be able to take specific Digital Humanities modules at both Undergraduate and Postgraduate level. Submission of module proposals to History for an undergraduate modules based on my own research, and to IATL for a postgraduate module extending ‘Thinking with Data’ to encompass more theoretical discussion. I expect at least one of the collaborating academics to develop a specifically Digital Humanities module, too.
- Staff will be able to think more cogently about how to teach Digital Literacy: the pros and cons of extra-curricular workshops across Faculties, within Departments, or the integration of specific literacies within specific research-led syllabi. Bringing in outside expertise both through workshops with invited speakers, and our visits to Kings College London and Trinity College Dublin. I’ll write up a paper for WRAP on the topic and my own experiences, and collecting experiences from others at the university.
- Both students and staff will have a pool of resources to draw on offering digital literacy training and signposting for the Digital Humanities. Building a set of resources on moodle tailored to specific levels of study and using open access, on a similar collaborative model to the Digital Tools for Researchers course but covering a wider range of topics. Workshops will both be recorded and story-boarded to help people quickly glance through and glean an impression of the discussion. There will also be an improved digital literacy offering for research students (collaborating with both Social Sciences and Humanities DTCs)
- Future postgraduate students at Warwick may have the option of taking a Digital Humanities MA, which will also embed the Digital Humanities at Warwick firmly for the long term. Course Proposal for a Digital Humanities MA (based in IATL / Faculty-I, like the Global Shakespeare MA) for teaching from 16/17, drawing on the modules created during the project as well as others at earlier stages of development.