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Although I’ve detailed some of the requirements for the DH Workshop Project in the assessments section here /is578-intro-dh/assessments/03-semester-project#initial-proposal, I wanted to discuss the workshop project in more general terms and provide some resources for brainstorming and developing your workshop

As you might have experienced in our course, there isn’t a single format for a DH workshop. Some weeks in our course I have been very technical in the workshop section, other weeks more group-work and discussion oriented. These sessions only represent a small sampling of the variety of DH workshops that you might develop or attend.

Rather than definitively define what constitutes a workshop, the goal of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to explore your interests in DH through the lens of workshop, which can still be related to your research or teaching interests, but is more aimed at teaching what you’ve learned rather than creating a research finding.

However, I want to acknowledge that teaching can be challenging when you are still in the midst of learning. That’s why I want to emphasize that these workshops are not intended to be the definitive guide to a topic, but rather a way to share what you’ve learned and to help others learn from your experiences. I also want to emphasize that there are no wrong ways to create a DH workshop, and that you will primarily be evaluated on your thoughtfulness in developing and executing your workshop; your ability to articulate your goals and methods; and how much you engage with DH scholarship and resources. Yet, even within those parameters, there remains significant room for creativity and experimentation.

Brainstorming

To help mitigate the open horizons, here are a few potential scenarios that might help you brainstorm your workshop. These are not definitive, and my best advice is to reach out to the instructor if you have questions or concerns.

Scenario 1: Research Question

You have a research question that you want to explore that relates to DH in some way, but you don’t know where to start. One option is to develop a workshop built around your research question (whether that’s studying popular culture on TikTok or annotations in Medieval Folios) and then the workshop would introduce your audience to the research question, and a variety of tools and methods that you might use to explore it. For instance, when studying platforms like TikTok, you might detail how to use the TikTok API to collect data, and then how to use a tool like Voyant to analyze the data. In the case of Medieval Folios, you might detail how to use a tool like Tropy to organize your images, and then how to use a tool like AntConc to analyze the text. In both those scenarios, you could organize the workshop around your research question, but also broader themes like how we turn humanities objects into data or issues of copyright and data privacy or the limits of computation for extracting data.

Scenario 2: Methodology or Tool

Instead of a specific research question, you might be more inclined towards a particular methodology or tool, whether that’s mapping or podcasting, or something else. In this case, you might develop a workshop that introduces your audience to the methodology or tool, and then provides them with a dataset or a set of questions to explore. For example, you might develop a workshop that introduces your audience to the basics of mapping, and then provides them with a dataset of historical addresses that they can map. Or you might develop a workshop that introduces your audience to the basics of podcasting, and then provides them with a set of questions to explore through podcasting. In both those scenarios, you could organize the workshop around the methodology or tool, but also broader themes like the limits of these tools for historic data or how to produce scholarship for public audiences.

Scenario 3: Pedagogy

Rather than focusing on a research question or a methodology or tool, you might be more interested in pedagogy, or how we teach DH. In this case, you might develop a workshop that introduces your audience to a particular pedagogical approach, and then provides them with a set of questions to explore. For example, you might develop a workshop that introduces your audience to the basics of project-based learning, and then provides them with a set of questions to explore through project-based learning. Or you might develop a workshop that introduces your audience to the basics of minimal computing, and then provides them with a set of questions to explore through working with static sites. In both those scenarios, you could organize the workshop around the pedagogical approach, but also broader themes like how to teach DH skills or how to develop a more sustainable research agenda.

Scenario 4: TBD

Perhaps you’ve conceived another workshop idea that doesn’t fit into any of these scenarios, or are feeling overwhelmed and unsure about how to proceed. That’s completely normal and understandable! First, I again encourage you to reach out to the instructor to discuss your idea and how you might develop it into a workshop. Even just chatting on Slack can be surprisingly generative. You might also take a look at some of the resources below to see if they spark any ideas. Lastly, you might ask yourself: why did you sign up for the Introduction to Digital Humanities course? If so, you might consider developing a workshop around that question or topic. I realize that might feel nerve-wracking or anxiety producing, but again the goal is not to produce the perfect workshop, but rather to give you the opportunity to explore your interests in DH through the lens of workshop to help you both learn something new and critically reflect on that experience.

Workshop Resources

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