DIGITAL HISTORY

The course belongs to the core educational activities of the Master’s Degree Programme in History from the Middle Ages to Present.
The aim of the course is to provide a broad understanding of arguments and debates about Digital History in Europe and outside Europe in order to compare theoretical approaches, tools and digital methods.

1) Knowledge and understanding

- to know the specific terminology of the discipline and understand the context in which it is used
- to know the arguments and debates about Digital History in Europe and outside Europe

2) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding

- to use in an appropriate manner the terminology related to the discipline
- to know how digital methods have been applied to an historical question in Europe and outside Europe

3) Judgment skills

- to know how the rise of digital technologies has changed the ways historians practice their craft

4) Communication skills

- to describe in an appropriate manner and critically the topics related to the discipline

5) Learning skills

- to critically use the bibliography and referral texts

This course is designed to provide historians with a first overview of the field of Digital History. No technical skills are required. Knowledge of the basic events of Modern and Contemporary History.

The course consists of three segments.

The first segment will look at the changing practice of doing history in the digital age and new ways for historians to share the results of their research with peers and with non-professionals.

- Digital Public History
- Wikipedia, blog, and social networks
- Open access journals

The second part will explore the changing nature of historical sources in the digital age. We will examine how software tools are used by digital historians.

- Text Mining
- Network Analysis
- Historical GIS

In the third part, students will be working in small groups on their own Digital History projects. They will transform an existing historical narrative into a Digital Historytelling.

Primary Text (for all students)

Deborah Paci (a cura di), La storia in digitale: teorie e metodologie, Milano, Unicopli, 2019


Students who do not attend classes will study also:

- Teresa Numerico, Domenico Fiormonte, Francesca Tomasi, L’umanista digitale, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2010

or

- Gabriele Balbi, Paolo Magaudda, Storia dei media digitali, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2014

or

- Rolando Minuti (a cura di), Il web e gli studi storici: guida critica all'uso della rete, Roma, Carocci, 2015

Student performance will be evaluated based on oral presentation related to the primary text and project work in small groups.

Students who do not attend classes will give a oral presentation related to two texts.

Front lectures and seminars.

Italian

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