DIGITAL HISTORY

The course of Digital History is part of the Master’s Degree Programme in ‘Digital and Public Humanities’, connected to the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities (VeDPH) in the Department of Humanities.
The course Digital History corresponds to the module Digital and Public History Mod. 1 (FM0489-1). It can be combined with the second part of the homonymous course (FM0489-2), centred on Public History, with a total credit weight of di 12 CFU, or chosen as single course, with a weight of 6 CFU (Digital History, FM0491).

Please note that if you take the teaching module on Digital and Public History (FM0489) the grade of your Digital History exam will only be registered afrer you have also taken the Public History exam (and the other way round).

1. Knowledge and understanding:
• Knowledge of the basics of Digital History, of the relevant theoretical debate and of some techniques and methodologies of the field.

2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
• Ability to apply the practice of Digital History to a specific historical event.

3. Ability to rielaborate autonomously what has been learned:
• Ability to critically analyse a historical source and rielaborate it with digital tools.

4. Communication skills:
• Ability to interact with the peers and the professor and communicate the outcomes of the student’s work.

A basic knowledge of history is not required but desirable.

At the core of the course there are the different ways in which history meets the world of computers and informatics, with a mixture of theory and practice. Through both individual and group activities the students will explore different forms of the complex relationship betwen the study of the past and the digital. The course will include also a guest lecture and a field trip.

The contents of the course include:
• Digital historical data
• Digital historical source criticism
• History and digital editions
• History and Wikipedia
• Digital storytelling
• History apps
• Digital history preservation
• Digital history archives
• History and the web
• Historical network analysis
• Historical text analysis
• Historical mapping
• History and AI

COMPULSORY READINGS
(all the readings without a link will be made available on Moodle; should you have any problems with the URL don't hesitate to contact the professor)

• S. Noiret, ‘Digital History 2.0’, in F. Clavert and S. Noiret (eds), L’histoire contemporaine à l'ère numérique: Contemporary history in the digital age, Bruxelles-Bern-Berlin-Frankfurt am Main New York-Oxford-Wien, Peter Lang, 2013, pp.155-190.

• G. Zaagsma, ‘On Digital History’, in BMGN-Low Countries Historical Review, 128.4 (2013), pp. 3.29

• K. Nawrotzki and J. Dougherty, ‘Introduction’ in K. Nawrotzki and J. Dougherty (eds), Writing History in the Digital Age, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2013 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/j.ctv65sx57.6.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default%3A9eaf7ad198d45d63fd54e77b970a22ba&ab_segments=&initiator=&acceptTC=1 ;
https://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/introduction-2012-spring/index.html )

• C. Favero, ‘Digital Historians in Italy and the UK: Perspectives and Approaches’, in Proceedings of the Digital Humanities Congress 2012, in Studies in the Digital Humanities, 2014 (https://www.dhi.ac.uk/books/dhc2012/digital-historians-in-italy-and-the-united-kingdom/ )

• S. Robertson, ‘The Difference between Digital Humanities and Digital History’, in M.K. Gold and L.K. Klein (eds), Debates in the Digital Humanities, Minneapolis and London, University of Minnesota Press, 2016 (https://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/read/untitled/section/ed4a1145-7044-42e9-a898-5ff8691b6628 )

• D. Eldestein et al., ‘Historical Research in a Digital Age: Reflections from the Mapping the Republic of Letters Project’, in American Historical Review, 122.2 (2017), pp. 400-424 (http://republicofletters.stanford.edu/publications/HistoricalResearch.pdf )

• R.Ma and F. Xiao, ‘Data Practices in Digital History’, in International Journal of Digital Curation, 15 (2020) (https://ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/597/570 )

• C. Annemieke Romein at al., ‘State of the Field: Digital History’, in History. The Journal of the Historical Association’, 105.365 (2020), pp. 291-312 (https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.12969 )

ADDITIONAL READINGS

• J.D. Cohen and R. Rosenzweig, Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006

• H. Salmi, What is Digital History?, New York, Wiley, 2020

• J. Blaney et al., Doing Digital History. A Beginner's Guide to Working with Text as Data, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2021

Assessment will be based on the following components:
1) Final oral exam (mostly revolving around the project and the topics discussed in class)
2) Development and completion of a project
3) Participation to class discussions and all the activities
5) Class presentation

oral

Under 18 (fail): - insufficient knowledge of and ability to understand the topics of the course - inadequate level of execution of class and home activities – project work which doesn’t show enough commitment and a sufficient understanding of Digital History features.
Grades 18-21: - barely sufficient knowledge of and ability to understand the topics of the course – acceptable but superficial level of execution of class and home activities – project work which shows a sufficient (but not fully satisfactory) commitment and understanding of Digital History features.
Grades 22-24: - satisfactory knowledge of and ability to understand the topics of the course – decent but not impeccable level of execution of class and home activities – project work which shows a satisfactory commitment and understanding of Digital History features, but with some gaps.
Grades 25-27: - good or very good knowledge of and ability to understand the topics of the course – more than satisfactory level of execution of class and home activities – project work which shows a major (but not outstanding) commitment and understanding of Digital History features.
Grades 28-30 (or 30 cum laude): - first-class knowledge of and ability to understand the topics of the course - excellent level of execution of class and home activities – project work which shows a remarkable commitment and understanding of Digital History features.

Attendance is strongly recommended.
Students will work on a project work and some assignments, which they will discuss in the final exam.

Teaching methodologies will include:
Lessons with activities, presentations, discussions, and interaction between professor and students.
When possible, also a guest lecture and/or a field-trip will be included.

Accessibility, Disability and Inclusion.
Accommodation and support services for students with disabilities and students with specific learning impairments:
Ca’ Foscari abides by Italian Law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support services and accommodation available to students with disabilities. This includes students with mobility, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999), and specific learning impairments (Law 170/2010). If you have a disability or impairment that requires accommodations (i.e., alternate testing, readers, note takers or interpreters) please contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disabilita@unive.it.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development