I teach in collaboration with faculty as well as standalone courses and workshops for undergraduate and graduate students. In collaboration, I assist humanities instructors with assignment and/or syllabus development, digital humanities instruction, and assignment evaluation. These collaborations may encompass only a few class meetings or may extend to the entire semester. My own teaching focuses on digital humanities theories and methods and especially their applications in historical and archival contexts.
Course Code: HCVIS 580
Semesters Taught: Falls 2015-2022
Co-Instructors: Victoria Szabo, Paul Jaskot
Description: This proseminar, primarily for students in the MA in Digital Art History/Computational Media but open to undergraduuates and graduate students in other programs, provides an overview of topics in digital humanities and computational media, with special attention to visual media. As co-instructor, I engage in reading discussions; lecture on key concepts such as project management, humanities data, and virtual and augmented reality; and lead workshops introducing students to data management, digital storytelling, web content management, and text analysis. I consult on and evaluate student projects.
Course Code: ISS 222D
Semesters Taught: Spring 2022, Spring 2023
Syllabi: Spring 2022, Spring 2023
Description: This course introduces undergraduates to digital approaches to humanistic research and its expression, across disciplines and fields. We discuss a range of topics and learn a selection of methods including data structuring, text analysis, digital mapping, data visualization, online archives and exhibitions, and immersive media.
In Spring 2022, I structured the course in the following units: Humans & Computing (How Computers Work & Humanities Computing), Storytelling (Stories & Digital Storytelling), Imagining (Models & Simulations, 3D Modeling), Structuring (Data & Archives), Representing (Data/Capta & Data Visualization), Interlude: Project Management, Scaling: Relationships (Networks & Mapping), Scaling: Interpretation (OCR, Text Analysis & Crowdsourcing), and Being (Cyborgs, Algorithms & Bias). Students completed a mini assignment for each method, led in-class discussions (which included a show-and-tell component), and completed a final project drawing on the theories and methods introduced in class.
In Spring 2023, I taught the course as an Archives Alive course, tying key digital humanities concepts to archival explorations in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library with a focus on the history of Duke University. Students had hands-on opportunities not only with archival materials but also with digital humanities methods including creating online archives and exhibitions, mapping, 3D modeling, and data visualization. Students responded to and participated in online discussion via Microsoft Teams. At the end of the semester, students produced a final project combining their historical research with digital humanities analytical and presentation methods. I also implemented ungrading practices, asking students to actively participate in their evaluations, based on the work of Susan Blum in Ungrading : Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead), edited by Susan D. Blum, West Virginia University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Course Code: ISS 310S
Semesters Taught: Fall 2024
Description: Building on the Spring 2023 iteration of Introduction to Digital Humanities, I have proposed a new undergraduate course for Fall 2024 that will engage students with questions of how archival materials can be transformed into data, why scholars may engage archives as data, what kinds of ethical concerns arise when archives are understood as data, and how to critique archival data scholarship. This course will draw on library and information sciences and humanities scholarship, combining archival theories with theories of data structuring when developing research questions. Students will gather and structure data from many types of archival materials representing a range of cultures and communities housed in Duke’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. They will then perform humanistic analyses via both digital and analog method.
Since 2015, I have consulted with students in the MA in Digital Art History & Computational Media program on their thesis projects. My consulting to date has incuded
Occasionally, students in Duke's PhD in Art History & Visual Culture program have consulted with me on digital components of their dissertations and other projects. These consultations have focused on
Course Code: ARTHIST 225
Semesters Taught: Fall 2023
Co-Instructor: Edward Triplett
Description: This project-based course offered students a chance to explore the history of Duke's construction, with particular focus on the years 1925-32. We combined hands-on training in GIS and 3D modeling with historical readings and in-class discussions. Students contributed to data gathering for the larger World Building Duke in an Emerging Durham: 1924-1932 Bass Connections project. They also produced their own dh projects that focused on various aspects of the planning and construction of Duke's West Campus as well as its considerable renovation of the Trinity College (which became the Woman's College before becoming East Campus).
For this course, I provided historical expertise and content, participated in and assisted with hands-on workshops, and mentored students as they developed their final projects.
Course Code: ARTHIST 504L
Semesters Taught: Springs 2019 & 2020
Co-Instructors: Sara Galletti (Spring 2019); Kristin Huffman (Spring 2020)
Description: Part of the Bass Connection Building Duke: The Architectural History of Duke Campus from 1924 to the Present project, this course was a research seminar in which undergraduate and graduate students conducted original archival research on the architectural history of Duke's campus and presented their findings through various dh methods, including most significantly ArcGIS StoryMaps. I led workshops on a variety of dh methods, including ArcGIS Online and StoryMaps, 3D modeling, and other web-based visualization platforms.
Course Code: ARTHIST 89S
Semesters Taught: Springs 2018, 2019, & 2020; Fall 2020
Lead Instructor: Kristin Huffman
Description: This course introduced students to the history of Venice in the Early Modern period (1450-1600). From the instructor's description: Visual Culture of Venice "investigates the artistic commissions that made the city into one of the most admired and well-visited destinations in the world. The research component of the course will be a consideration of Venice as it appeared through the eyes of the early modern tourist, or foreign visitor to the city with visual itineraries that may be shared with a larger academic community. The course assumes no prior art historical or digital experience; students will be provided with the background necessary to understand the art and architectural history of early modern Venice, and the skills required for the digital technology."
For this course, I collaborated to develop tutorials and assignments that introduced students to the concept of digital archives and exhibitions via Omeka. I led 2-3 in-class workshops, prepared instructional materials, and mentored students as they produced their final projects. Here is an example of the work created in this course.
Course Code: ARTHIST 190FS
Semesters Taught: Fall 2018
Lead Instructor: Kristin Huffman
Description: From the instructor: "The course presents an expansive picture of the art and society of Renaissance Venice. Residents, both individually and collectively, fashioned an image of the city as unprecedented and exceptional through art and architecture.Venice was indeed unique— a city built on water— and sponsors commissioned works of art as a way to promote the city as unparalleled in beauty, splendor, and glory."
Students produced digital archives and exhibitions via Omeka, for which I provided tutorial materials, in-class workshops, and feedback on assignments.
Course Code: ISS 356S
Semesters Taught: Spring 2018
Lead Instructors: Trudi Abel & Victoria Szabo
Description: Digital Durham is a long-running course at Duke that focuses on various aspects of Durham's history, with particular attention to its beginnings in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It relies on archival materials housed at Duke University and digitized as part of the Digital Durham project.
For this course, I participated in the historical reading discussions and offered consultation to students developing digital projects and provided critical feedback on their final submissions.
Course Code: ARTHIST 290
Semesters Taught: Fall 2017
Lead Instructor: Kristin Huffman
Description: In this course, students studied major artworks from Renaissance Venice. For their final projects, they curated a virtual exhibition that brought together their individual studies of single artworks. Each work is placed in a model of several rooms from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Each work is annotated with metadata and a link to a Microsoft Sway narrative that provides more information about the work. For this course, I led workshops on Microsoft Sway and SketchUp and created the museum model into which students placed their artwork models. I then created the tour in Sketchfab following their curatorial design.
Course Code: ARTHIST 256
Semesters Taught: Fall 2016, Spring 2018
Lead Instructor: Kristin Huffman
Description: From the instructor: "This course traces the development of the Italian baroque in architecture, sculpture and painting and considers a variety of themes relevant to Baroque artistic production." This course included an Omeka and Neatline project in which students developed a small digital archive of relevant materials in Omeka and developed a narrative around them using creative visualization techniques in Omeka's plugin Neatline.
Course Code: ARTHIST 225
Semesters Taught: Fall 2016
Lead Instructor: Caroline Bruzelius
Description: In this "signature" course, students learn the history of Gothic architecture with special focus on cathedrals and monasteries. For their final project, teams develop a story, characters, and artifacts that document the construction process of a fictional Gothic cathedral. As part of the project, they develop 2D drawings and/or 3D models of their cathedrals. For this iteration of the course, I taught students to use AutoCAD to create their Gothic designs.
Image Credit: Marina, Angela, Anna, and Eric
Course Code: ARTHIST 290S
Semesters Taught: Spring 2015-Fall 2016
Lead Instructor: Matthew Woodworth
Description: For this architectural history course, students learn about the history and culture of castle building in Medieval Britain. In three iterations of the course, I taught students to use SketchUp to create 3D models of ruined or fictional Medieval castles. I led workshops, provided feedback, and assisted with final evaluation.
Course Code: ARTHIST 255
Semesters Taught: Spring 2016
Lead Instructor: Kristin Huffman
Description: This course focused on the art history of the Italian Renaissance. This course included an Omeka and Neatline project in which students developed a small digital archive of relevant materials in Omeka and developed a narrative around them using creative visualization techniques in Omeka's plugin Neatline.
Course Code: VMS 80S
Semesters Taught: Spring 2016
Lead Instructor: Kristin Huffman
Description: For this course, students learned basic mapping in Omeka with Neatline and modeling in SketchUp. They used these platforms to study and present research on particular sites and art works of Early Modern Venice. I presented workshops in dh tools, provided feedback, and assisted with final evaluation.
Course Code: ARTHIST 101
Semesters Taught: Spring 2015
Lead Instructor: Caroline Bruzelius
Description: This course offers students an overview of the history of art from prehistory to the early modern period. For this course, I played an integral role designing a syllabus in Omeka with Neatline and also teaching students to use Omeka and Neatline for several assignments, including a final project in which they created Neatline projects that visual presented stories of specific objects or materials.
Course Code: VMS 551LS
Semesters Taught: Spring 2015
Co-Instructor: Kristin Huffman
Description: A project-based course in which students learned the history of and developed a 3D model of a single palazzo, no longer extant, in Venice. I mentored the students in a variety of dh platforms as they developed models in SketchUp, Cheetah3D, and Unity; managed historical research in Omeka; created textures with Photoshop; and used Google Earth to study the site's location alongside historical documents.
Course Code: ARTHIST 208
Semesters Taught: Spring 2017
Lead Instructor: Sheila Dillon
Description: This course was taught between Duke and The American College of Greece. Students engaged in the history of Athens and developed Omeka and Neatline projects based on their research. A major component of the course was a Spring Break trip in which the Duke class met the ACG class to visit historic sites together and to work on their projects. I led workshops on Omeka and Neatline in both Durham and Athens, teaching ACG students remotely when in Durham. I also provided project feedback and assisted with final evaluations.
Course Code: VMS 334
Semesters Taught: Spring 2017, Spring 2019
Lead Instructor: Alicia Jiménez
Description: This course focuses on the history and archaeology of ancient Rome. For this course, I developed and led workshops on Omeka and Neatline, which students used for several assignments, including their final project in which they contributed as a group to a Neatline map of ancient sites and parade routes in Rome. In the 2019 iteration, I mentored a graduate student who TA'ed for the course and led the workshops, and worked with him to design a rubric for evaluating students' work in Omeka and Neatline. The rubric assessed not only content but also their understandings of Omeka and Neatline and application of metadata principles.
Image Note: This image is from the 2020 iteration of the course. However, the work shown builds directly on the assignment design I created for the course in 2017.