CoursesDigital Humanities

January 2018

Lisa Dembouski and Deb Pitton – Island Schooling: Supporting Pupil Learning on Sint Maarten, Dutch West Indies

This is a service learning course, which incorporates the concepts and procedures that are the primary focus for effective service learning. As defined, “service learning is a process whereby students learn and develop through active participation in organized service experiences that actually meet community needs. Service learning provides students opportunities to use their acquired skills and knowledge in real life situations in their communities and reflect upon the events. This enhances teaching by extending student learning into the community and helps foster a sense of caring for others” (Burns, 1998). This course is also one in which Gustavus students can explore the multiple social/political/cultural/historical influences that impact education and schooling systems. Through our partnership with Superintendent Greene and the Foundation Catholic Education schools in SXM; students will enjoy regular work in schools with St. Maarten pupils in order to develop key skills and dispositions of the profession. Finally, this course will emphasize a digital component in that the final course project will be one done in collaboration with Gustavus students’ host classrooms and that will be developed, created, preserved, and shared using digital technologies appropriate to the project you ultimately decide to create. Course instructors and other digital learning supports will be infused throughout students’ efforts during the month on island.

Annika Ericksen –

Barbara Fister – Identification

Rob Kendrick and Henry MacCarthy –

Justin Knoepfel, CUR 220 – Musical Understanding

This course deals with the musical experience of the listener: considering music from the perspective of an audience member, you will encounter a wide variety of music(s), you will complete a brief survey of Western music, you will develop and use a musical vocabulary, and you will enhance your listening skills. Students will gain an understanding of the nature and place of music in culture by analyzing its historical context, listening to music critically, and attending musical productions. Projects will be done utilizing technology in a meaningful, engaging, and interactive way.

Baker Lawley – Digital Storytelling

Maddalena Marinari – Storytelling in the Twenty-first Century

Carlos Mejia – Post-Conflict Literature and Film in Columbia

In this course we will explore how armed conflict is transformed both in official measures and in artistic representation. We will do this by focusing particularly on the Colombian case, which for over sixty years sustained the longest standing internal conflict, and which might have come to an end in 2016. The artistic production of the country is marked by this context, and since 2003 it is arguably one of the main trends of representation. In this course we will engage in extensive reading of Colombian novels and films that address issues of truth, justice, and reparation in the context of the country’s armed conflict. As a group we will use digital tools to identify patterns of representation of these issues, visualyze and analyze them, and to create our own way to communicate these findings to a wider audience. The transformation of armed conflict is an enduring challenge of our human condition and we will engage with the way solutions to this challenge are imagined and culturally produced.

January 2017

Pam Conners, COM 213 – Food and Communication

Students will examine how food speaks to us as well as how we speak about food. Food communicates; its smell, taste, appearance, texture, and sound shape how we respond as consumers. Our relationship to food is also intimately connected to our identity. What we eat as well as how we talk about food is situational and cultural. Students will analyze food marketing as well as food debates over the science, art, economics, culture, and performance of food. Particular emphasis will be placed on how the digital realm shapes our perspectives on food.

Sean Easton and Carlos Mejia, PCS 220 – Post-Conflict in Literature and Film

In this course students will explore and critically engage with how societies create specific measures to move beyond armed conflict and create more harmonious relationships; and with the way in which literature and film either critique or propose such measures. We will analyze and reflect on both ancient (Sophocles' "Ajax" and other classical materials) and modern sources (films such as "Waltz with Bashir", "Oedipus, mayor", "Photographs on a Sea of Lies", "The Secret in their Eyes" (Argentine version), "Death and the Maiden", and modern literary works) to reflect on current trends of post-conflict and transitional justice: the importance of truth and memory, justice, and reparation with guarantees of no-repetition for the victims. Students will also create their own way to illuminate the issue through a digital project.

Jeff Jenson, NDL 310 – Geneology: Research and Exploration

It has been said that all history is local. With that in mind, one’s family history is their most immediate connection to the past. Students completing Genealogy: Research and Exploration will have gained a fuller understanding of their complex family histories; explored a variety of genealogy resources; used software applications; become acquainted with archival repositories, libraries, cemeteries, government offices, and relevant websites. Students are expected to conduct research, develop digital mediums, compile findings in written narrative and chart form, and present their stories in class. This is a Mellon Grant Digital Humanities course. A laptop computer will be required.

Justin Knoepfel, CUR 220 – Musical Understanding

Glenn Kranking, HIS 217 – History Bytes: History in the Digital Age

We live in a digital world filled with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Wii. New technology is not just for entertainment, but can also prove useful for academics, creating new opportunities and new challenges for accessing and presenting research. As we embrace new technologies, will printed sources become artifacts of the past? Throughout this course we will discuss how technology influences the research and presentation of history. The course will culminate with the creating of group projects related to Gustavus history incorporating a technological component. Technological knowledge is not required, but may be beneficial.

So Young Park and Lianying Shan, IDS 212 – Korean Drama: Transnational Contexts

This course explores the pop-cultural phenomenon of Korean Drama, or K-drama, and its global popularity and contexts. We will examine iconic Korean dramas – historical and contemporary dramas – and study their cultural following in East Asia and beyond. Students will use digital methodologies, especially social media, to research the cultural dissemination and impact of K-drama on Asian geopolitics as well as on the flow of cultural capital between East Asian countries and the US. Students will also research online fandom, celebrity culture in East Asian media, and gender and media studies. Dramas will be screened in English translation.

Sarah Wolter, COM 208 – Media Literacy 2.0: Digital Humanities as a Tool for Media Education

Adolescence, first recognized as a cultural construct at the beginning of the 20th century, is a stage of life between childhood and adulthood characterized by pubertal change, identity formation, social development, and the acquisition of experiences and credentials promoting entry to adult roles. This course employs critical media theory to examine mediated images directed toward adolescent girls. Components of the course include an overview of representations of girls in the media, body dissatisfaction and dietary restraint, the influence of marketing moguls, and strategies for change. Coursework includes reading assignments, in-class discussion, writing assignments, and a final project incorporating digital humanities.

January 2016

Pam Conners, COM 213 – Food and Communication

In the course, students will examine how food speaks to us as well as how we speak about food. Food communicates; its smell, taste, appearance, texture, and sound shape how we respond as consumers. Our relationship to food is also intimately connected to our identity. What we eat as well as how we talk about food is situational and cultural. Students will analyze food marketing as well as food debates over the science, art, economics, culture, and performance of food. Particular emphasis will be placed on how the digital realm shapes our perspectives on food.

Jeff Jenson, NDL 310 – Genealogy: Research and Exploration

Geneology course

Baker Lawley, ENG 202 – Digital Literature: Editing and Publishing an Online Literary Magazine

Experience the world of professional editing and publishing right from campus! This course will create a hands-on, working publishing house at Gustavus, to edit and publish the first issue of a new national literary magazine. Students will work through all phases of the publishing process (Acquisition, Editorial, and Marketing), practicing the techniques and procedures of professional editing. Students will read submitted works of writing and art, and discuss which ones to publish as an editorial board. They will also study the business of the publishing industry, evaluate other literary magazines, and create a website design for our magazine.

Micah Maatman, T/D 215 – Arts Entrepreneurship

This course will focus on creating art in the age of digital media. Using Schaefer Gallery and a Digital Humanities approach, students will work with guest artist John Preus creating an immersive gallery space able to house visual and performing arts exhibits. Artists of all disciplines will create or reshow projects and in doing so, explore creating art that has a digital component. Students will learn how to portray artwork digitally, use the digital as a marketing tool for the exhibit or performance, and provide patrons additional insight into the artistic process by using media to engage artists and audiences inside the gallery and in cyberspace.

Carlos Mejia, NDL 213 – Local and Global Depictions of the War on Drugs

In this course students will critically engage with different representations of the war on drugs, contrast these representations with current research. Based on their observations, students will explore the possibilities of the digital canvas (social networking, webpage design, data mining, timeline creation, or map enhancement) in order to create their own visualization of the issue. Students will also have the opportunity to engage with a role play activity where they will reflect on how Drug Trade Organizations impact communities.

Amy Seham, T/D 137 – The History of Social Justice at Gustavus: A Digital Humanities Approach

Learning and using a “digital humanities” approach, the class will research, analyze and communicate the history of social conflict at Gustavus over the last 20 years in the larger context of key issues on college campuses throughout the United States. Individual and group projects will explore manifestations of racism, sexism, sexual violence and homophobia on campus, and will map the specific ways in which Gustavus students, faculty, administrators and others have fought that oppression Projects may focus on social justice work in the classroom, the arts, student life, or other venues. Students will use digital tools to develop creative ways of sharing their findings in cyberspace.