Comments on: DH and undergraduate research

By: Proposal: Inclusion = 1 Part Yack + 2 Parts Hack | THATCamp CHNM 2011

Proposal: Inclusion = 1 Part Yack + 2 Parts Hack | THATCamp CHNM 2011 — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:31:03 +0000

[…] Undergraduate research and the digital humanities is the concern of both Tonya Howe and Sarah Werner […]

By: sarah.werner

sarah.werner — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:46:30 +0000

Thanks for the links–I’ll look forward to exploring them. There does seem to be a thread of interest through the proposals in pedagogy. And one way of thinking about this, too, is to see it as a way of getting support for teaching & digital projects that might not otherwise be seen as a priority. In other words, reframing this sort of DH work as undergraduate research might give it an in with administrators, funding agencies, and other faculty.

And I think Amanda’s right, too–there are benefits to students beyond teaching research skills in getting them to engage with questions of digital literacy and advocacy. All research is moving towards use of the digital, and that’s got to be something that undergraduates learn how to navigate.

By: Jeffrey McClurken

Jeffrey McClurken — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 05:35:55 +0000

I think this is an important session too, on its own, and in the areas that it overlaps with Tonya’s session.

I’ve struggled with the questions you ask about the role of undergraduates in research as well, and I’ve tried a variety of levels of projects with my own students. [See the syllabi and project links at dh2010.umwblogs.org and digitalhistory.umwblogs.org.]

There’s clearly a great deal of interest at this year’s THATCamp for a conversation along these lines.

By: Amanda French

Amanda French — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 03:20:00 +0000

I taught an undergrad research (slash / info literacy) course at NCSU for Honors students: i’m perennially interested in how we can teach research skills to undergrads. I’m in.

I guess I’d also say that teaching people how to do research in the digital age IS digital humanities — the way we taught the class, it was very much informed by a history of how online research got to be the way it is, the history, the economics, the privacy issues, all that.