This innovative course will introduce students to a broad range of digital humanities techniques as they are applied to issues of social justice, equality, and activism in various media. Themes or institutional focus may vary with the research background of the instructor (for example, climate change, cultural heritage, hate speech analytics). Students will be introduced to the work of relevant thought leaders and industry experts outside of the academy. A final project will allow students to use one or more of these methods in a case study of their own choosing.

This course will investigate foundational principles of cultural heritage and its material preservation, with a particular focus on emerging threats to historic sites and objects through digital humanities (such as global warming, religious extremism, armed conflict, and racial injustice). It will explore and engage with innovative technologies utilized to confront a variety of global challenges. Students will gain ‘hands-on’ practice in laser scanning, photogrammetry, and digital mapping with field trips to local heritage sites and museums in the Bay Area, case study projects and much more. There is a real urgency and agency in stripping away old models for understanding material culture – especially ancient cultural heritage sites. This class embarks on exciting and new trajectories within art history, material culture studies as well as cutting-edge digital humanities, charting new ways for seeing, examining and understanding culture heritage. The class is thus a “journey” of sorts, a dialogue with technology, art, cultures and historicities in an attempt to fully engage with cultural heritage issues through a twenty-first century lens. The course will take the “long view” of cultural heritage, looking at art history from a global and transhistorical and trans cultural perspective. At the end of the semester, we will create an online portfolio/course website that showcases our work. In Spring 2022, Dr. Justin Underhill will be a recurring guest lecturer for the DH component of this course. Dr. Underhill is the Director of the V-Lab at UC Berkeley.

This course fills the elective requirement for the 2022 Digital Humanities Summer Minor program.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.