Off Campus DH Resources

This post is one that I originally wrote for VIDL for my series, In Pursuit of Digital Pedagogy.

Have you ever wanted to learn how to program? Or how to visualize networks? Or how to create video games? Or develop and manage digital projects? Then a digital humanities training workshop is for you.

While Vanderbilt has lots of great on-campus resources for tooling up on digital learning and teaching, sometimes getting off campus and into an intensive workshop is the best option for immersing into the world of digital learning.

Usually a week or so in length, DH workshops provide an opportunity to focus intensely on developing one particular digital skill or project under the guidance of an expert in the field. These workshops attract a wide range of participants from the academe and beyond, as well as all skill levels. So whether you are: a first year graduate student; a tenured professor; an experienced digital project director; or someone completely new to digital projects – DH workshops are a great way to get exposed to the growing field of digital humanities, as well as new digital tools for researching and teaching.

In early August, I had the opportunity to attend a DH workshop at the University of Maryland’s Humanities Intensive Learning and Training (HILT), where I participated in the Humanities Programming workshop. HILT offers a range of workshops, and next time I hope to attend the workshop on Visualizing Networks (for a full list of courses offered this year click here). I was fortunate to receive one of HILT’s student scholarships for first time attendees and graduate students to help cover costs. While these courses are intended for scholars working in the humanities, these workshops may also be of interest to scholars in the sciences – especially if you are interested in expanding your digital literacies.

Wayne Graham and Brandon Walsh from the University of Virginia’s Scholars’ Lab were the instructors for my course, and two better instructors would be hard to find. Wayne and Brandon were not only incredibly knowledgeable and patient, but also hilariously fun, which made the entire week really enjoyable, albeit exhausting too. Over the course of five days, the Humanities Programming workshop course covered a wide range of programming principles and skills, including: HTML; CSS; Command Line; and how to deploy pages using Git, Github and Heroku. Read the rest here