DIGITAL HISTORY

The course belongs to the core educational activities of the Master’s Degree Programme in Digital and Public Humanities. The course Public and Digital History Mod. 2 (FM0489-2) is a course on Digital History. It can be combined with the first part of the homonymous course (FM0489-1), centred on Public History, with a total credit weight of 12 CFU, or chosen as a single course, with a weight of 6 CFU (Digital History, FM0491).
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:
Students will gain a deeper understanding about the field of Digital History, its development, and relevant intellectual debates.
Students learn about main techniques and methodologies and how they are applied in the field.

2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
Students will gain the ability to techniques and methodologies used in Digital History
Students will gain the ability critically reflect on the use of these methods
Students will apply Digital History in a practical project

3. Judgment skills
Students will learn to critically analyse digital resources and its use for historical research.
Students will learn to critically assess the application of DH method for historical research.

4. Communication skills
Students will discuss relevant topics and literature, and communicate the outcome of their students work to their peers and the professor.

This is an introduction to Digital History. There are no technical skills required.

The course Digital History will first explore main developments, key concepts and intellectual debates in the field of Digital History. We will discuss how the work with historical sources, writing and presenting history has changed in the digital age.
In the second part we will examine and critically discuss the use of digital tools and methodologies for historical research. Using a range of Digital History projects, we will take a closer look at standards, software tools and methods widely used in the Digital History community. Students will apply their knowledge by realizing a small Digital History project and report on the results and issues they had working on it.
Topics of the course will include data standards; ontologies and LOD, text mining, network analysis; historical GIS; data visualization; data sharing and publication licences.

- Daniel J. Cohen, Roy Rosenzweig, Digital history: a guide to gathering, preserving, and presenting the past on the Web, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.
- Jack Dougherty, Kristen Nawrotzki, editors. Writing History in the Digital Age. University of Michigan Press, 2013, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv65sx57 .
- Adam Crymble. Technology and the Historian: Transformations in the Digital Age. University of Illinois Press, 2021, https://doi.org/10.5406/j.ctv1k03s73 .

The assessment will be based on the following components:
1) Final oral exam
2) Participation to class discussions
3) Assignments and course activities
Non-attending students need to contact the lecturer about the assignments and prepare additional reading.

Frontal instruction with in-class discussion. The required reading and additional material will be made available through the Moodle e-learning platform.

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