Courses

Uni­ver­sity of Virginia

Dataes­thet­ics (MDST3559). Depart­ment of Media Stud­ies.  This course intro­duces stu­dents to the the­ory and prac­tice of data­base appli­ca­tion design in the con­text of the dig­i­tal lib­eral arts. Begin­ning with the premise that the data­base is the defin­ing sym­bolic form of the post­mod­ern era, stu­dents review crit­i­cal lit­er­a­ture about data­bases, study exam­ples of their use in projects from a vari­ety of dis­ci­plines, and engage in the actual design of a data­base appli­ca­tion as a course project. Top­ics to be cov­ered will include cross-cultural modes of clas­si­fi­ca­tion, data mod­els, web-based data­base devel­op­ment (using PHP and MySQL), and the role of data­bases play in knowl­edge work within the acad­emy. To be taught Spring 2010.

Intro­duc­tion to the Dig­i­tal Lib­eral Arts (MDST3703). Depart­ment of Media Stud­ies. This course pro­vides stu­dents with a prac­ti­cal and crit­i­cal intro­duc­tion to dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies that are shap­ing research, inno­va­tion, and crit­i­cal think­ing across the lib­eral arts cur­ricu­lum. Stu­dents will learn spe­cific tech­nolo­gies that will empower them to bet­ter envi­sion and develop technology-­?mediated projects in the arts, human­i­ties, social sci­ences, and nat­ural sci­ences. At the crit­i­cal level, stu­dents will read from and reflect on two key schools of thought—the dig­i­tal human­i­ties and media studies—as a frame­work within which to eval­u­ate the design and insti­tu­tional impact of dig­i­tal media. Stu­dents will engage with a series of case stud­ies from UVA fac­ulty and oth­ers, address­ing such issues as effec­tive­ness of design and suit­abil­ity to the goals of a lib­eral arts edu­ca­tion. Stu­dents will a keep a blog of their responses to read­ings (and other mate­ri­als) as well as to issues raised in class. Spring and Fall 2010.

The Inter­net is Another Coun­try (INST2550). Here­ford Col­lege.  This course explores emerg­ing social and cog­ni­tive for­ma­tions in the con­text of global soci­ety in the era of the Inter­net, begin­ning in the 1960s. Dur­ing each weekly ses­sion we will view, read, or lis­ten to peo­ple engaged or inter­ested in a spe­cific zone of Inter­net geog­ra­phy, such as Face­Book, MySpace, Wikipedia, YouTube, Sec­ondLife, and Google, explor­ing top­ics such as mem­ory, per­sonal iden­tity, pri­vacy, and edu­ca­tion. Stu­dents will con­tribute to a com­mon web space describ­ing their expe­ri­ences from the course and Inter­net explo­rations.  Spring 2010.

Dick­in­son College

Anthro­pol­ogy of the Infor­ma­tion Soci­ety (ANT245). Depart­ment of Anthro­pol­ogy. This course explored such top­ics as sur­veil­lance, pri­vacy, and vir­tual com­mu­nity in the age of ubiq­ui­tous net­worked com­put­ing from an anthro­po­log­i­cal and ethno­graphic per­spec­tive. Fall 2007.
» Syl­labus

Prince­ton University

The Anthro­pol­ogy of Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­ogy (ANT345). Depart­ment of Anthro­pol­ogy. This course explored the com­plex his­tory between anthro­pol­ogy and infor­ma­tion tech­nol­ogy, inves­ti­gat­ing the com­puter as core metaphor for the con­cept of cul­ture, mar­gin­al­ized research tool for the analy­sis of ethno­graphic data, hip method­ol­ogy for cor­po­rate soft­ware devel­op­ment, and cen­tral arti­fact in the inves­ti­ga­tion of post­mod­ern cul­ture.  Stu­dents kept blogs. Fall 2004.
» Syl­labus

Old French Pale­og­ra­phy and Elec­tronic Tech­nolo­gies (FRE707). Depart­ment of French and Ital­ian. Co-taught with Sarah-Jane Mur­ray.  This course explored the rela­tion­ship between nineteenth-century philo­log­i­cal the­ory, medieval tex­tu­al­ity, and var­i­ous tech­niques of rep­re­sent­ing text dig­i­tally, includ­ing XML and rela­tional data mod­els.  Focus was on the research inter­ests of the grad­u­ate stu­dents tak­ing the course.  Fall 2002.

Art His­tory and Tech­nol­ogy (FRS113 and FRS163). Depart­ment of Art His­tory. Co-taught with Kirk Alexan­der and John Pinto.  This course explored Roman and art and archae­ol­ogy from the per­spec­tive of data­base design and use.  Stu­dents read texts relat­ing to Roman art his­tory, art his­tor­i­cal the­ory, and data­base the­ory, and pur­sued a num­ber of hands-on exer­cises per­tain­ing to the nature of clas­si­fi­ca­tion.  Stu­dents pro­duced a com­plete data record for a Roman build­ing or work of art in Almagest, Princeton’s home grown media data­base for teach­ing and learn­ing, and gave a pre­sen­ta­tion of their work at the end of the course.   Fall 1999 and Fall 2001.
» Syl­labus

Tweet This Post