ARH 8006: Digital Humanities & Visual Culture: Untold Narratives of Albemarle County

Digital tools have completely transformed the questions humanists ask, how they view the world and how they disseminate their scholarship. These new possibilities both open and close possible avenues of investigation. This course will introduce students to tools relevant to the analysis of visual culture and architecture as well as the process of how to learn to use digital tools – critical given the constantly changing array of options-  as well as how to develop a digital project. Together with experts from UVA’s Scholar’s Lab we will critically assess the role of digital humanities in art and architectural history through an analysis of selected digital projects as well as specific tools.  We will consider questions such as: What are the tools that have made this work possible? How have these same tools imposed limits on the project under examination? How can these tools advance on our own work and the dissemination of our scholarship? We will analyze what  these tools make possible in terms of our own research and learn how to apply them. We will work through the process of digital project development using Design Thinking Methods from selecting objects of study, to recording those objects, constructing a database to visualizing the data and finally representing it through a digital project using Storymap. This course has been developed in part in response to a Virginia Center for the Humanities panel of June 2021 which pointed out that fewer than 1% of historical markers in Virginia are for sites associated with people of color and women.  We will work with Albemarle County’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion to develop  Storymap projects focused on untold narratives related to women and people of color in the county. This course is open to undergraduate and  graduate students from any discipline. No previous experience or familiarity with digital humanities work is required or assumed.

Learning Objectives

This course will introduce students to 

·         tools relevant to the analysis of visual culture and architecture 

·         the process of how to learn to use digital tools – critical given the constantly changing array of options-  

·         how to develop a digital project. 

·         critically assess the role of digital humanities in art and architectural history through an analysis of selected digital projects as well as specific tools. 

Tuesdays 1:00-3:30 p.m.