Digital Studies in the Arts and Humanities Minor - Course Options

Spring 2026 | Summer 2026 | Fall 2026

2026-2027 Academic Year*

* This course list is in development and is subject to change.

Fall 2026

• [Required for Minor] DH285: Intro to Digital Studies in the Arts and Humanities

• Tues/Thurs, 10:20-11:40
• Instructor: Kristen Mapes

• DH235/ENG235: Exploring Digital Humanities: History, Practice, and Speculation

• Mon/Wed, 10:20-12:10
• Instructor: Natalie Phillips

• HST251: Doing Digital History

• Late Start: Course begins September 26
• Tues/Thurs, 4:10-6:00
• Instructor: Dean Rehberger

• WRA210: Introduction to Web Authoring

• Section 001: Tues/Thurs, 8:30-9:50

• Instructor: John Lauckner

• Section 002: Tues, 12:40-2:00 (in person) / Thurs, 12:40-2:00 (synchronous online)

• Instructor: Ann Burke

• WRA308: Invention in Writing

• This iteration of the course focuses specifically on how AI is (or isn't?) transforming the writing and creative process
• Mon/Wed, 12:40-2:00
• Instructor: Mike Ristich

• WRA410: Advanced Web Authoring

• Mon/Wed, 3:00-4:20
• Instructor: Jeff Kuure

• WRA415: Digital Rhetoric

• Mon/Wed, 12:40-2:00
• Instructor: Marohang Limbu

• WRA453: Grant and Proposal Writing

• Tues/Thurs: 5:00-6:20pm
• Instructor: Kristen Pratt

• WRA482: Information and Interaction Design

• Mon/Wed, 12:40-2:40
• Instructor: Liza Potts

• XA310: Computational Thinking for the Humanities

• Prerequisite: WRA210
• Mon, 10:20-11:40 (in person) / Wed, 10:20-11:40 (synchronous online)
• Instructor: Ann Burke

• XA375: Information Architecture

• Prerequisite: XA242
• Mon/Wed, 10:20-11:40
• Instructor: Liza Potts

• GD303: Experimental Design Practices

• Mon/Wed, 3:00-4:50
• Instructor: Zach Kaiser

• GD491: Special Topics in Graphic Design (exact topic TBA, will be about interaction design)

• Mon/Wed, 12:40-2:30
• Instructor: Zach Kaiser

• JRN203: Visual Storytelling

• Mon/Wed/Fri, 3:00-3:50
• Instructor: TBA

• JRN338: Information Graphics

• Mon/Wed, 3:30-4:50
• Instructor: TBA

• MI250: Introduction to Applied Programming

• Tu/Th, 10:20-12:10
• Instructor: TBA

• MI401-730: Topics in Information Science: Society and Technology

• Online asynchronous
• Instructor: TBA

• MI401-740: Topics in Information Science: Avatar Psychology

• Mon/Wed, 2:40-4:00 (synchronous online)
• Instructor: TBA

• MI450: Creating Human-Centered Technology

• Mon, 12:30-3:30
• Instructor: TBA

• MI462: Social Media and Social Media Computing

• Th, 3:00-4:50 (hybrid course - asynchronous lectures plus Thurs lab)
• Instructor: TBA

2025-2026 Academic Year

Summer 2026

• HST489: Seminar in Digital History

• Summer Session 2 (6/30-8/14), Online asynchronous
• Instructor: Dean Rehberger
• Migration and especially slavery and the Atlantic slave trade through primary source material, most of which is available online.

• GSAH312: Global Digital Cultures

• Summer Session 2 (6/30-8/14), Online asynchronous
• This course addresses the transformative effects of digital media and communication on cultural exchange and creativity in global contexts. Ethical and social questions concerning the use and circulation of digital media and communications in various regional, national, and transnational contexts. No prerequisite.

Spring 2026

• [Required for Minor] DH340: Digital Studies in Practice

• Tues/Thurs, 4:10-5:30
• Instructor: Titi Kou-Herrema
• When AI Reads the Archive: In this hands-on Digital Humanities seminar, students experiment with a range of language models to analyze texts across genres and topics. Through this collaborative investigation, students gain both technical experience with modern AI tools and critical insight into how computational systems shape our understanding of text and culture.

• DH450: Digital Studies Capstone

• Wed, 3:00-4:50 (online synchronous)
• Instructor: Christine Peffer

• DH491/FLM460: Cinema and the Digital City

• Mon 12:40-3:30 / Wed 12:40-2:30
• Instructor: Kuhu Tanvir
• The history of cinema in the west is deeply intertwined with the spaces, movement, and rhythms of the city. From the city symphony films of the 1920s, to the shadows of film noir, from the aimless strut of the flaneur, to the high-speed chase of thrillers, from the nickelodeons of the early 20th century, to the multi-screened luxury movie theaters today, the city has served as inspiration, subject, backdrop, and the site of film exhibition, as much as it determined the politics, morality and aesthetic of cinema. The makeup of the city today has changed such that the emphasis is no longer on the streets and the brick-and-mortar buildings, but on the flow of information. And yet, the relationship between cinema and the city persists. Cinema and the Digital City examines cinema’s relationship with the digital city that relies extensively on digital networks that shape relationships, movement, access, and the meanings and experiences of personhood. What does this digital city look like on-screen? If the street, or the slum, or the apartment building were emblematic of the old city in cinema, how does cinema indicate relationships, power, movement, and space in the digital city? If the streetwalker, the panhandler and the factory-worker were staples of the old city, which characters stand-out in the digital city? The readings for the course will introduce you to debates about how cinematic cultures across the world are responding to an increasingly digital urban sphere. Films include Ready, Player One (Spielberg 2018), LSD (Banerjee 2010), and Jose (Li 2018) among several others.

• AAAS302: Black Institutions, Sustainability, and Statecraft: Black Feminisms and Speculative Futures: Critical AI Literacy at the Intersections

• Mon/Wed, 4:10-5:30
• Instructor: Mia Shaw
• Through the theme "Black Feminisms and Speculative Futures: Critical AI Literacy at the Intersections," this course will explore the cultural, historical, and sociotechnical imaginaries currently shaping AI's prominence as well as center the ways Black women are leveraging institutional and grassroots power to resist Big Tech's influence and imagine more liberatory futures with technology.

• ANP412: Method and Practice in Digital Heritage

• Tues/Thurs, 12:40-2:00
• Instructor: Jesse Draper

• CSE291: AI and Computational Literacy (Special Topics in Computer Science)

• Dates/times TBA
• Instructor: Marilyn Wulfekuhler
• The only prerequisite is high school math, it is open to any major, and will teach fundamentals of using AI.  This includes understanding at a high level how it works, and how to use off the shelf tools effectively, responsibly and ethically, while understanding AI's limitations and biases.  It will also include a unit on programming, but instead of developing Python programs from scratch, students will develop them with generative AI tools and learn how to prompt, and how to verify that the resulting code does what they need it to do.  The format will be highly interactive, with students doing lots of hands on activities in class using AI tools. (This course is especially interested in having Digital Studies students enroll)

• ENG492H: Honors Seminar in English

• Mon/Wed, 12:20-11:40
• Instructor: Natalie Philips
• Open to students in the Honors College and seniors in the Dept of English, or by approval of the dept
• This course interweaves two interdisciplinary fields in literary studies: cognitive approaches to literature and the literary history of mind. Discussing literary works from Persuasion to A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the course explores pivotal topics in the literary and scientific history of the brain, with a focus on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We consider, for example, how Descartes’ attempt to locate the soul in the pineal gland influenced depictions of thought in Tristram Shandy; the satiric inspiration Hogarth and Blake drew from the century’s rising interest in anatomical dissections of the brain; Jane Austen’s use of contemporary theories of head injury in Persuasion. Throughout, we will read key works in cognitive approaches to fiction exploring the advantages—and profound challenges—of integrating cognitive science with literary history. The seminar will conclude by exploring recent work in the neuroscience of reading, with a focus on alternate styles of literary reading and cognition in dyslexia, autism, and attention deficit. Students will learn to use scientific databases, such as PubMed, to find the latest studies in neurobiology, developmental psychology, cognitive linguistics, and neuroaesthetics. Alongside their final research paper, students will work collaboratively to brainstorm and design an interdisciplinary experiment that uses technologies from cognitive science—such as fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) or eye-tracking—to explore a central question about literary reading.

• GD303: Experimental Design Practices

• Mon/Wed, 12:40-2:30
• Instructor: Zachary Kaiser

• GD468: Interaction Design

• Tues/Thurs, 8:00-9:50
• Instructor: Rebecca Tegtmeyer

• HST489: Seminar in Digital History

• Tues, 3:00-5:50
• Instructor: Louis Moore

• IAH206-020: Data and Ethics

• Tues/Thurs, 3:00-4:20
• Instructor: Robyn Bluhm

• JRN203: Visual Storytelling

• Mon/Wed/Fri, 9:10-10:00
• Instructor: Jeremy Steels

• LIN484: Data Analysis for Linguists

• Tues/Thurs, 10:20-11:40 (online synchronous)
• Digital Studies students can get an override (listed prereqs are LIN200 or LIN401)
• Opportunity to learn the programming language R in the context of learning about languages and linguistics

• MI250: Introduction to Applied Programming

• Mon/Wed, 10:20-12:10
• Instructor: Morgan Vigil-Hayes

• MI304: Information and Society

• Online Asynchronous
• Instructor: Ruth Shillair

• MI320: Reasoning with Data

• Mon/Wed, 10:20-12:10
• Instructor: Michael Stern

• MI401: Digital Communications and Society

• Tues, 10:20-1:10
• Instructor: Keith Hampton
• How digital media affect social relationships, health, political engagement, and society.

• MI401: Understanding Virtual Reality

• Tues/Thurs, 3:00-4:20 (online synchronous)
• Instructor: Rabby Ratan

• MI402: Game Tech for Non-Game Industries

• Mon/Wed, 12:40-2:30
• Instructor: Cory Heald
• Explore additional career opportunities into Marketing, Visualization, and Film while expanding your existing skills. In this class we will be utilizing 3D assets in game engines to produce cutting edge projects to build your portfolio.

• MUSM487: Museums, Arts and Culture in the Digital Future

• Tues, 3:00-5:50
• Instructor: Max Evjen

• WRA210: Introduction to Web Authoring

• Section 001: Tues, 12:40-2:00 (in person) / Thurs, 12:40-2:00 (synchronous online)

• Instructor: Ann Burke

• Section 002: Mon/Wed 10:20-11:40

• Instructor: Stuart Blythe

• WRA410: Advanced Web Authoring

• Mon/Wed, 10:20-11:40
• Instructor: Jeff Kuure

• WRA415: Digital Rhetoric

• Tues/Thurs, 12:40-2:00
• Instructor: Marohang Limbu

• XA310: Computational Thinking for the Humanities

• Section 001: Mon/Wed, 8:300-9:50

• Instructor: Kathryn Houghton

• Section 002: Tues, 10:20-11:40 (in person) / Thurs, 10:20-11:40 (synchronous online)

• Instructor: Ann Burke

Fall 2025

• [Required for Minor] DH285: Intro to Digital Studies in the Arts and Humanities

• Tues/Thurs, 10:20-11:40
• Instructor: Kristen Mapes

• DH235/ENG235: Exploring Digital Humanities: History, Practice, and Speculation

• Mon/Wed, 10:20-12:10
• Instructor: Natalie Phillips

• HST251: Doing Digital History

• Late Start: Course begins September 26
• Tues/Thurs, 4:10-6:00
• Instructor: TBA

• WRA210: Introduction to Web Authoring

• Tues/Thurs, 8:30-9:50
• Instructor: Stuart Blythe

• WRA308: Invention in Writing

• This iteration of the course focuses specifically on how AI is (or isn't?) transforming the writing and creative process
• Mon/Wed, 12:40-2:00
• Instructor: Mike Ristich

• WRA410: Advanced Web Authoring

• Mon/Wed, 3:00-4:20
• Instructor: Jeff Kuure

• WRA415: Digital Rhetoric

• Mon/Wed, 12:40-2:00
• Instructor: Marohang Limbu

• WRA453: Grant and Proposal Writing

• Hybrid course; In person meeting: Wed: 10:20-11:40
• Instructor: Kristen Pratt

• WS491: Documenting the History of Women’s and Gender Studies at MSU

• Tues/Thurs, 3:00-4:20
• Instructor: Lisa M Fine
• Guided by the MSU historian, Dr. Lisa M Fine, students will work collectively to uncover and tell the story of women’s and gender studies at MSU. Utilizing feminist methodologies, students will record oral histories, conduct library special collections research, and create digital archives to document and preserve the history of women’s courses, programs, and activism at MSU. This course is a rare opportunity to work directly with an accomplished historian of women and labor movements. Student contributors will be listed as co-authors on future publications and products of this project.

• XA310 - Computational Thinking for the Humanities

• Prerequisite: WRA210
• Section 1: Mon/Wed, 8:30-9:50, Instructor: Kathryn Houghton
• Section 2: Tu 12:40-2:00 / Th 12:40-2:00, Instructor: Ann Burke

• GD303: Experimental Design Practices

• Mon/Wed, 3:00-4:50
• Instructor: Zach Kaiser

• GD491: Special Topics in Graphic Design (exact topic TBA, will be about interaction design)

• Mon/Wed, 12:40-2:30
• Instructor: Zach Kaiser

• MI250: Introduction to Applied Programming

• Tu/Th, 10:20-12:10
• Instructor: TBA

• MI401-730: Topics in Information Science: Avatar Psychology

• Mon/Wed, 2:40-4:00 (Wed classes are online synchronous)
• Instructor: TBA

• MI462: Social Media and Social Media Computing

• Th, 3:00-4:50 (hybrid course)
• Instructor: TBA

Past Years

Fall 2024 | Spring 2025 | Summer 2025

Fall 2023 | Spring 2024

Fall 2022 | Spring 2023

Fall 2021 | Spring 2022 | Summer 2022

Fall 2019 | Spring 2020

2024-2025 Academic Year

Summer 2025

• HST250: History and Technology of the Digital Age

• Summer Session 2 (7/1-8/15), Online asynchronous
• Instructor: Gillian MacDonald
• We will explore the impact of information technology on society. Who had access? Who computes? We will also explore the tensions that have arisen with the widespread access to computers and networks and the tug-of-war between governments and publics over use and privacy.

• GSAH312: Global Digital Cultures

• Summer Session 2 (7/1-8/15), Online asynchronous

This course addresses the transformative effects of digital media and communication on cultural exchange and creativity in global contexts. Ethical and social questions concerning the use and circulation of digital media and communications in various regional, national, and transnational contexts. No prerequisite.

Spring 2025

• [Required for Minor] DH340: Digital Studies in Practice

• Tues/Thurs, 4:10-5:30
• Instructor: Jesse Draper

• ANP412: Method and Practice in Digital Heritage

• Tues/Thurs, 12:40-2:00
• Instructor: Jesse Draper
• Prereq: HST251, or with dept approval

• ENG473A: Literature and Medicine

• Mon/Wed, 8:30-9:50
• Instructor: Steven Rachman

• GD 303-001: Experimental Design Practices

• Mon/Wed, 11:30am-2:20pm
• Instructor: Zach Kaiser

• GD 491-002: Interaction Design II

• Mon/Wed, 3:00-5:50pm
• Instructor: Zach Kaiser

• LIN 484: Data Analysis for Linguists

• Mon/Wed, 10:20-11:40, online synchronous
• Instructor: Betsy Sneller

• MI239: Digital Footprints: Privacy and Online Behavior

• Mon/Wed, 12:40-2:00
• Instructor: Stephanie Jordan

• MI320: Reasoning with Data

• Mon/Wed/Fri, 10:20-11:10
• Instructor: Michael Stern

• MI401: Topics in Information Science: Digital Communications and Society

• How digital media affect social relationships, health, political engagement, and society.
• Thurs, 10:20-1:10
• Instructor: Keith Hampton

• MI401: Topics in Information Science: Understanding Virtual Reality

• Students will be expected to use a VR headset (Quest 2 or newer) in this course and can borrow one from Dr. Ratan for the semester if needed. In-person attendance in the classroom will be required on Tuesdays from 4:10 PM to 5:30 PM, while synchronous virtual (online remote) attendance will be required on Thursday from 4:10 PM to 5:30 PM.
• Tues, in person ; Thurs, asynchronous online, 4:10-5:30
• Instructor: Rabindra Ratan

• MI402: Topics in Game Studies: Game Tech for Non-Game Industries

• Game Tech for Non-Game Industries: Explore additional career opportunities into Marketing, Visualization, and Film while expanding your existing skills. In this class we will be utilizing 3D assets in game engines to produce cutting edge projects to build your portfolio.
• Mon/Wed 12:40-2:30
• Instructor: Cory Herald

• WRA210: Introduction to Web Authoring

• Section 001

• Mon/Wed, 3:00-4:20
• Instructor: Ann Burke

• Section 002

• Tues/Thurs, 10:20-11:40
• Instructor: Stuart Blythe

• WRA410: Advanced Web Authoring

• Mon/Wed, 10:20-11:40
• Instructor: Jeff Kuure

• WRA415: Digital Rhetoric

• Mon/Wed, 10:20-11:40
• Instructor: Liza Potts

• XA310: Computational Thinking for the Humanities

• Mon/Wed, 8:30-9:50
• Instructor: Jeff Kuure

Fall 2024

• [Required for Minor] DH285: Intro to Digital Studies in the Arts and Humanities

• Section 001 - Tues/Thurs, 10:20-11:40
• Section 002 - Fri, 10:20-1:10
• Instructor: Kristen Mapes

• DH235/ENG235: Exploring Digital Humanities: History, Practice, and Speculation

• Tues/Thurs, 5:00-6:50
• Instructor: Sooyhun Cho

• HST251: Doing Digital History

• Late Start: Course begins September 26
• Tues/Thurs, 4:10-6:00
• Instructor: Dean Rehberger

• HST489: Seminar in Digital History

• Mon, 12:40-3:30
• Instructor: Walter Hawthorne

• WRA210: Introduction to Web Authoring

• Tues/Thurs, 8:30-9:50
• Instructor: Stuart Blythe

• WRA410: Advanced Web Authoring

• Mon/Wed, 8:30-9:50
• Instructor: Jeff Kuure

• WRA453: Grant and Proposal Writing

• Wed: 10:20-11:40
• Instructor: K. Pratt

• XA310 - Computational Thinking for the Humanities

• Mon/Wed, 10:20-11:40
• Instructor: Jeff Kuure

• GD303: Experimental Design Practices

• Mon/Wed, 11:30-2:20
• Instructor: Zach Kaiser

• GD468: Interaction Design

• Mon/Wed, 3:00-5:50
• Instructor: Zach Kaiser

2023-2024 Academic Year

Spring 2024

• [Required for Minor] DH340 - Digital Humanities Seminar

• Tues/Thurs, 4:10-5:30pm
• Instructor: Matthew Handelman

• DH450 - Digital Humanities Capstone

• Fri, 10:20-12:10
• Instructor: Kate Topham

• ENG235 - Exploring Digital Humanities: History, Practice, and Speculation

• Mon/Wed, 5:00-6:50
• Instructor: Soohyun Cho
• People all over the world have been turning to creativity during the pandemic as a coping mechanism. What does the archive of pandemic art tell us about the first datafied pandemic in human history? This course introduces students to interdisciplinary research practices in the Digital Humanities & Literary Cognition Lab, including our newest project, Creativity in the Time of COVID-19. Students will explore themes that spark their own research interest, mapping patterns (or developing creative work) that grow out of 2,000 global pandemic stories and artworks across 16 nations, as well as investigating social media trends and other pandemic archives. Each week, we take up a new question, digital tool, or theme, including topics such as the therapeutic role of art in global health crises, the relationship between creativity, mental health, and social justice movements, as well as the possibility for building social connection through shared acts of creativity. Throughout, we consider how everything from cognitive science to disability justice can inform how we exhibit art beyond traditional museum settings.

• ANP412 - Method and Practice in Digital Heritage

• Tues/Thurs, 12:40-2:00pm
• Instructor: Ethan Watrall

• GSAH312 - Global Digital Cultures

• Tues/Thurs, 3:00-4:20pm
• Instructor: David Humphrey

• ENG325/GSAH315 - Readings in Graphic Narrative

• Mon/Wed: 3:00-4:10pm
• Instructor: Julian Chambliss
• This course will explore comics culture in the United States through the critical investigation of Superhero Comics (SC), Afrofuturist Comics (GM), and global comics narrative as expressed through the MSU Library’s Comic Art Collection (CAC). Superhero comics have shaped popular culture, reflecting shifting concerns about identity, community, and power. Afrofuturist comics are graphic narratives that manifest discourses about speculation and liberation central to Afrofuturist ideology. Our final consideration is to take advantage of the 300,000+ comics and comics artifacts housed within the MSU library. We will use Wikidata to explore information about comic creators and publications outside the United States. We will learn about and then apply three methods of critical engagement to study these graphic narratives: close reading, critical making, and digital humanities. We will write about visual narratives, make comics, and then create digital visualizations of the archives to reveal new pathways to understanding comics. This course will culminate in a project where students present their comics in a public showcase on campus (with an online companion element). The overall goal is first to learn about comics content, demonstrate engagement with writing and making them, and then gain valuable experience using digital methodology to examine comic culture.

• ENG457 - Literature and Mind: Thinking and Feeling in 18th-Century Fiction (in the course list as “Seminar in 18th-Century British Literature”)

• Tues/Thurs, 2:40-4:00pm
• Instructor: Natalie Phillips
• How does literature represent the mind? What effect does reading literature have on thought and emotion? This course takes up these questions in a period where debates about cognition had become newly vibrant: the Enlightenment. Reading a range of literary and scientific works engaged with theories of the mind and brain— eighteenth-century treatises on emotion, anatomical engravings, best-selling novels and essays, satires on science, poetry, and works of pornography—we explore the history of rationality and its discontents, objectivity and memory, and depictions of cognitive control lost (absorption, obsession, and madness). As we discuss the history of curiosity, boredom, distraction, happiness, and desire, we will also consider the distinctly historical ways that eighteenth-century literature raced, gendered, classed, and sexed the body and mind. Students will learn to use databases like Eighteenth-Century Collections Online and Metaphors of Mind to explore literature’s connections with the history of science, engage interdisciplinary scholarship on theories of the mind, brain, and environment, and discuss new work in cognitive literary studies and the history of neuroscience. Students will be asked to participate actively and creatively in discussion, keep abreast of our reading schedule, and conduct a final research project on a topic of personal interest in the literary history of cognition.

• HST201-007 - Historical Methods and Skills - The Analogue and the Digital

• Tues/Thurs, 10:20-11:40am
• Instructor: Gillian Macdonald

• HST482 - Seminar in Medieval History: A Spatial History of Byzantium

• Tues/Thurs, 1:00-2:20pm
• Instructor: A. L. McMichael

• HST489 - Seminar in Digital History: Digital History & Slavery

• Wed, 4:10-7:00pm
• Instructor: Walter Hawthorne

• MUSM487 - Museums, Arts and Culture in the Digital Future

• Tues, 3:00-5:50pm
• Instructor: Max Evjen

• WRA210 - Introduction to Web Authoring

• Tues/Thurs, 8:30-9:50am

• Instructor: Lawson

• Tues/Thurs, 10:20-11:40am

• Instructor: Stuart Blythe

• WRA410 - Advanced Web Authoring

• Mon/Wed, 10:20-11:40am
• Instructor: Jeff Kuure

• XA310 - Computational Thinking for the Humanities

• Mon/Wed, 8:30-9:50am
• Instructor: Jeff Kuure

Fall 2023

• [Required for Minor] DH285 - Introduction to Digital Humanities

• Fri, 10:20am-1:10pm
• Instructor: Kristen Mapes

• HST251 - Doing Digital History

• Late Start (begins Sept 28)
• Tues/Thurs, 10:20am-12:10pm
• Instructor: Dean Rehberger
• This course will focus on the history of the computer and the internet as the base for our exploration of digital history methods. Students will learn how to answer historical research questions about the history of digital technologies using digital methods, including among others, digital archive research, network analysis, data mining, text analysis, mapping, image  and media analysis, and web-based presentation.

• IAH206-730 - Snoop: Self, Surveillance, and Technologies of Control

• Online Asynchronous
• Instructor: Kathryn McEwen

• WRA210 - Introduction to Web Authoring

• Tues/Thurs, 8:30am-9:50am
• Instructor: Stuart Blythe

• WRA325 - Writing and Multimodality

• Tues/Thurs, 10:20am-11:40am
• Instructor: Kristin Arola

• WRA410 - Advanced Web Authoring

• Mon/Wed, 12:40pm-2:00pm
• Instructor: John Monberg

• WRA415 - Digital Rhetoric

• Mon/Wed, 12:40pm-2:00pm
• Instructor: Pratt

• WRA453 - Grant and Proposal Writing

• Mon/Wed, 3:00pm-4:20pm
• Instructor: Pratt

2022-2023 Academic Year

Spring 2023

• DH491/FLM460 - Mobile Media: Cellphones and Mass Culture

• Mon, 4:10-7:00 & Wed, 4:10-6:00
• Instructor: Kuhu Tanvir
• Digital technologies have been central in changing the ontology of some fundamental concepts like space, public sphere, communication and mobility. Mobility in particular is not just something that has undergone a foundational transformation with digital technology, but is arguably itself the change in how we define these concepts. This course will grapple with the very idea of mobility as it takes shape in this era of digital technology and as it, in turn, shapes our understanding of publics, politics, relationships, access and control. This course surveys some of the ways in which we use and interact with mobile media and how these devices influence the fabric of society.

• ANP412 - Method and Practice in Digital Heritage

• Tues/Thurs 12:40-2:00
• Instructor: Ethan Watrall

• ENG364 - Literature and the Mind

• Mon/Wed 10:20-11:40
• Instructor: Natalie Phillips

• GSAH312 - Global Digital Cultures: Infrastructures, Platforms and the Global Digital

• Tues/Thurs 3:00-4:20
• Instructor: David Humphrey

• WRA210 - Introduction to Web Authoring

• Section 1

• Mon/Wed 12:40-2:00
• Instructor: Stuart Blythe

• Section 2

• Tues/Thurs 3:00-4:20
• Instructor: Casey Miles

• WRA320 - Technical Communication

• Tues/Thurs 10:20-11:40
• Instructor: Kathryn Houghton

• WRA410 - Advanced Web Authoring

• Section 1

• Mon/Wed 8:30-9:50
• Instructor: Jeffrey Kuure

• Section 2

• Tues/Thurs 12:40-2:00
• Instructor: John Monberg

• WRA453 - Grant and Proposal Writing

• Mon/Wed 5:00-6:20
• Instructor: Joyce Meier

Fall 2022

• DH491 - Data Ethics

• Wed, 10:20am-1:10pm
• Instructor: Kate Topham

• HST/HA418 - History and Art Through Technology

• Tues/Thurs, 1:00-2:20pm
• Instructor: Alice Lynn McMichael

• HST251 - Doing Digital History

• Late start course - begins Sept 29
• Tues/Thurs, 10:20am-12:10pm
• Instructor: Sharon Leon
• This course will focus on the history of slavery in the United States and its aftermath as the base for our exploration of digital history methods. Students will learn how to answer historical research questions about the history of slavery in the United States using digital methods that include historical data mining, text analysis, mapping, image analysis, and web-based presentation.

• GSAH312 - Global Digital Cultures

• Tues/Thurs, 3:00-4:20pm
• Instructor: David Humphrey

• XA310 - Computational Thinking for the Humanities

• Mon/Wed, 10:20-11:40am
• Instructor: Jeffrey Kuure
• Has prerequisites and needs approval to be admitted.

• WRA210 - Introduction to Web Authoring

• Section 1

• Mon/Wed, 3:00-4:20pm
• Instructor: Ann Burke
• May need approval to join

• Section 2

• Tues/Thurs, 8:30-9:50am
• Instructor: Stuart Blythe
• May need approval to join

• WRA325 - Writing and Multimodality

• Tues/Thurs, 12:40-2:00pm
• Instructor: Christina Boyles

• WRA410 - Advanced Web Authoring

• Mon/Wed, 8:30-9:50am
• Instructor: Jeffrey Kuure
• Has prerequisites and may need approval to be admitted.

2021-2022 Academic Year

Fall 2021

• DH491 - Media Archives in the Digital Age

• Wed, 4:10-7:00pm
• Instructor: Kuhu Tanvir
• This course will engage with digital archives of media objects ranging from film, television, music, advertising, and media platforms and services on the internet. This course will examine how media storage changes with digitization. What changes in terms of infrastructure, materiality, governance, and access, and in turn, how changes in the scope and definition of the archive itself affect media history and historiography. Students will engage with the discourse of the archive, debates about media materiality, and examine digital archives that may be formally curated as archives, or be fragmented, unofficial archives facilitated by open-access software and platforms like YouTube, Torrents etc. that allow fans to build their own media archives.

• GSAH 312 - Global Digital Cultures

• Tues/Thurs, 3:00-4:20pm
• Instructor: David Humphrey
• Platforms, Infrastructures and the Global Digital
  We will examine how digital networks and platforms, from Instagram to China’s WeChat, have restructured social interaction and cultural production globally, while they have continued to extend older power differentials. Course material will include readings on current issues, as well as hands-on exposure to digital tools.

Spring 2022

• HST482 - Seminar in Medieval History: Trade and Travel in Byzantium

• Tues/Thurs 1:00-2:20pm
• Prerequisites: HST 201 or HST 201H and completion of a Tier I writing requirement
• Instructor: Alice Lynn McMichael
• ​​The Medieval History seminar’s course topic for Spring 2022 is Trade and Travel in Byzantium (ca. 313-1453 CE). By examining a range of historical sources (literature, art objects, maps, legal texts, coins, and monuments) this class will highlight ways that Byzantine society networked across the Mediterranean, Anatolia, and North Africa during the medieval period. We’ll explore how a diverse population—in roles ranging from imperial patrons to farm laborers to monks—experienced cultural exchange. Case studies in gift-giving and diplomacy, religious pilgrimage, conflict and plague, and economic developments will help us rethink historical documentation and analysis in light of technological developments.
  
  In class we will use digital and analog research methods to explore concepts of wayfinding, map making, and visualizing geospatial data. Students will use these methods to create a digital capstone project that transforms our understanding of Byzantine itineraries and destinations. Equipment and software will be provided, and you don’t need prior experience with digital technology for this class.

• ANP 412: Method and Practice in Digital Heritage 

• Tue/Thu : 3:00-4:20 PM
• Instructor: Ethan Watrall

Summer 2022

• Technology, Humanities, and the Arts in London and Scotland (Study Abroad)

• Program takes place during Summer Session I; course enrollment formally spans over the entire summer in order to allow time to finish up final projects
• Students take 2 courses:

• DH 491 – Culture: Physical and Digital (3 credits) and
• Either IAH 241E – Art, Technology, and Politics [4 credits] or AL 491 – Art, Society, and Technological Change [4 credits]

• Instructor: Kristen Mapes
• Timeframe: June 2022

• WRA 453: Grant and Proposal Writing

• Summer Session 1; online
• Instructor: Kristen Pratt
• Looking to secure funding via academic and professional grants? This course will introduce you to the basic concepts, parts, and moves of grant and funding applications, as well as the research work needed to identify and complete proposals. Over the class you will become familiar with a step-by-step approach to grant work and produce a full grant proposal of your own!

2020-2021 Academic Year

Summer 2020

• HST250 - History of the Digital Age

• Online
• Instructor(s): Daniel Fandino

• ENG478A - Podcasting

• Summer Session 1 - Online
• Instructor: Lyn Goeringer
• This online class summer course is an introduction to independent podcast production. Looking at narrative, documentary, investigative, artistic, and creative podcasting styles, this class teaches you how to make professional quality audio recordings with a cellphone or digital audio recorder, how to mix and arrange them on your own computer, and how to share them with the world. No experience required.

• Who this course is great for

• Writers who want to find a new outlet for their work
• People wanting to make documentary pieces
• Anyone who wants to consider storytelling as an auditory practice
• People who want to engage in experimental story making
• Anyone who wants to know more about sound/sound editing practices (It's great for film makers!)
• Anyone who wants to play with sounds, recording technologies, and more

• GSAH312 - Global Digital Cultures

• Summer Session 2 - Online
• Note: GSAH301 is a prerequisite for this course, but it will be waived for DH students (email kmapes@msu.edu for assistance in getting an override)
• Studies the transformative effects of digital media and communication on cultural exchange and creativity in global contexts. Introduces students to ethical and social questions concerning the use and circulation of digital media and communications in various regional, national, and transnational contexts.

Fall 2020

• DH285 - Introduction to Digital Humanities (required course for the minor)

• Fri, 10:10-1:00
• Instructors: Kristen Mapes and Kate Topham

• DH491 - Digital Scholarly Editions: From Design to Deliverable

• Tues, 5:00-7:50
• Instructor: Eric Hood
• In this course students, working as a team, will produce a digital scholarly edition (DSE) of a literary text. Beginning with a traditional print edition, students will consider the scope and design of their DSE. Students will then work to code their DSE, learning about tagging, the site index, and the TEI. Once completed, students will learn how the code they produced is transformed into a product for users. Through this experience, students will be able to see how to organize and develop a large project. They will experience how decisions made at the initial stages of design impact elements of the published project. And, perhaps most importantly, they will experience firsthand how projects of this scope depend on a diverse and well-organized team of active contributors.

• HST251 - Doing Digital History

• Mon/Wed, 3:00-4:50
• Instructor: Jennifer Andrella

• ENG478B - Literature and Visual Culture

• Mon/Wed, 12:40-2:00
• Instructor: Julian Chambliss
• In his definition of Afrofuturism cultural critic Mark Dery called our attention to the fact “African-American voices have other stories to tell about culture, technology, and things to come.” For us to truly understand Afrofuturism, he stressed we must seek it in “unlikely place” and in “far-flung points.” Ironically, Dery’s reading of Afrofuturism relied heavily on an interpretation of comic books. Indeed, he wrote that Afrofuturism “percolates” through “black-written, black drawn comics.” Dery’s definition of Afrofuturism prompts us to consider how the merger of text and image offers something different in the black speculative tradition. We will move beyond the current fascination with Black Panther and discuss a range of comics with themes that align with Afrofuturism. We will analyze the politics of liberation represented by these works and the communities they inspire. This course will incorporate critical making projects focused on creating data visualizations for the Comics as Data project from the Digital Humanities and Literary Cognition Lab (DHLC). The visualization projects will provide an accessible way to see trends, outliers, and patterns in comic publications.

• Internship opportunities

• Digital Scholarship Lab (in the Main Library) - 1 available spot

Spring 2021

• DH340 - Digital Humanities Seminar (required course for the minor)

• Mon/Wed, 4:10-5:30
• Instructor: Amanda Tickner

• DH491 - Digital Public Humanities

• Mon/Wed, 1:00-2:20
• Instructor: Sharon Leon
• Interested in the work that good humanities scholarship can do in the world? Wondering how we can create meaningful and engaging encounters with members of the public through digital means, such as social media, blogs, exhibit sites, collection and archives sites, mobile applications, and digital simulations. This course will introduce students to the theories and methods central to doing digital public humanities and will equip them with the skills necessary to plan and execute their own projects and offer them an opportunity to collaborate on a real-world digital project.

• GSAH312 - Global Digital Cultures

• Mon/Wed, 12:40-2:00
• Instructor: Sean Pue
• This course asks the following question: What is the role of digital media and technology in the world, in individual lives, and in communities across distances and inequalities? We first explore the role of media and/in the world. Next, we reflect on how technology is changing what it means to be human. Finally, we consider how global digital media and technology enables and complicates activism and other forms of community.

• REL291: Digital Religion

• Mon/Wed, 10:20-11:40
• Instructors: Amy DeRogatis and Kate Topham
• This course will be a mix of critical investigation of the digital and using digital tools to analyze religious topics.

• ANP412: Method and Practice in Digital Heritage

• Tues/Thurs, 10:20-11:40
• Instructor: Ethan Watrall

• Internship opportunities

• Digital Scholarship Lab (in the Main Library) - 1 available spot
• Digital Heritage Imaging & Innovation Lab (credit bearing internship)

• Students would be working on digitization  projects - mostly 3D - of archaeological and heritage materials.

Summer 2019

• ENG478A - Literature, Technology, and Representation -- Podcasting

• Summer Session 1 - Online
• Prof Lyn Goeringer
• Have you ever wanted to make your own podcast, but didn’t know how, or even where to begin? In this online summer course, you will be learning how to make your own podcast using affordable tools. We will go over ways that we can tell compelling stories, consider the history of podcasting and radio that influence its structure, all while working toward making our own podcasts and short audio pieces. This class is perfect for anyone who is interested in podcasting, either as a story-based platform, serial format, or even sound art and music focused podcasting! No previous experience required.

• HST250 - History of the Digital Age

• Summer Session 2 - Online
• Prof Sharon Leon
• In History of the Digital Age, we will explore the nineteenth-century roots of our contemporary digital technologies, and the social and cultural context of their development over the last century and a half. Through a process of reading, writing and response, and hands-on activities, not only will we learn about the important inventors of the early computing machines, but we will also learn about others who have labored in the service of growing, supporting, and changing these technologies. No scientific or technological change happens in a black box, so we will be careful to interrogate the processes and ideological assumptions that surrounded the creation of computing machines, the crafting of their programs, and their integration into society. Additionally, we will explore the tension between the creative freedom that has come with widespread access to computers and the networks that connect them, and the persistent corporate and governmental control that has functioned to shape their availability and use. Finally, we will examine a number of contemporary issues and challenges raised by the increasing pervasiveness of computer technologies in public and private contexts.

• HST489 - Seminar in Digital History

• Summer Session 2 - Online
• Profs Walter Hawthorne and Dean Rehberger
• Migration and especially slavery and the Atlantic slave trade through primary source material, most of which is available online.

• WRA453 - Grant and Proposal Writing

• Summer Session 1 - Online
• Prof Kate Birdsall
• Enrollment restricted to majors in Professional Writing, Fisheries and Wildlife, and Forestry, and graduate students in Rhetoric & Writing. Students in other majors may request an override from Rhonda Hibbit (hibbit@msu.edu). (For DH students needing assistance with getting an override, I am happy to help. -Kristen)

Fall 2019

• DH491/891 - Theories of the Digital

• Mon, 3:00-5:50pm
• Prof Matthew Handelman
• The digital is everywhere – it’s even made its way into the study of history and literature that we call the humanities. But what exactly is the digital? It may be the opposite of the analog, but it’s also a response to a set of long-standing humanistic questions about the nature of human reason and the possibility of mechanizing thought. This course introduces students to the entwined histories of computational and humanistic thinking, exploring theories of the digital from pre-electronic digital devices to current topics in big data, algorithmic reason, and artificial intelligence. We will read foundational texts from Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, and John von Neumann as well as explore the social, political, and ethical concerns raised by the omnipresence of computational technologies in the twenty-first century. To live in the digital world is to engage both practically and theoretically with the processes and effects of ubiquitous computing. This course thematizes both while seeking to cultivate informed digital thinkers, makers, and citizens.

• HST251 - Doing Digital History

• Mon/Wed 3:00-4:50pm
• Prof Sharon Leon
• This late start course (September 25) will focus on the history of slavery in the United States and its aftermath as the base for our exploration of digital history methods. Students will learn how to answer historical research questions using digital tools and data sets. We will investigate methods that include historical data mining, text analysis, mapping, image analysis, and web-based presentation. Classes will include discussions as well as hands-on workshops and tutorials. Each week students will encounter new uses of data to understand the past. They will learn to make maps and visualizations as vehicles of both research and interpretation. Students will research, design, and create a digital portfolio over the course of the semester. The portfolio is the perfect vehicle to demonstrate to potential internship supervisors or employers your functional skills.
• Students will be required to bring a laptop to class, and will complete significant portions of their assignments (aside from reading) in class.
• This course satisfies the requirements for those needing a US course, a course from the post-1800 period. It also serves as an elective in the College of Arts and Letters minor in Digital Humanities.

• MC/HST319 - Asian American History

• Mon/Wed 10:20-11:40
• Prof Anna Pegler-Gordon
• Since the mid-nineteenth century, people of Asian descent have migrated to, worked in, and fought against discrimination by the United States. This course explores the histories of people of Asian descent in the United States from 1850 to the present, linking this longstanding presence with issues of contemporary significance. However, Asian American history is not only about learning historical content in the classroom, but also about changing the ways that we understand history.
• In this course, we will engage in two assignments that take history outside of the classroom: an oral history which will record underrepresented Asian American experiences, and a digital humanities project which will create an online map of Asian Americans in Michigan. With technical and intellectual support at each stage of the process, your original archival research will be used to create a collaborative digital humanities map. If you have interest in gaining practical historical and media skills, as well as learning more about digital humanities, you may be interested in this class. No prior historical knowledge is required.
• Students who are not in James Madison College but who are interested in enrolling in the course should email the instructor for an override (gordonap@msu.edu)

• WRA491-001 - Computational Thinking

• Mon/Wed 10:20-12:10

• ENG473A: Literature and Medicine

• Tues/Thurs 12:40-2:00
• Prof Natalie Phillips
• This course interweaves three interdisciplinary fields in literary studies: cognitive approaches to literature, the history of mind, and medical humanities. Discussing intersections in literary and medical portrayals of cognition from Austen’s Persuasion to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and OCDaniel, we explore pivotal moments in the  history of the mind and brain, beginning in the eighteenth century and ending with the DSM-5, self-described as “the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals in the U.S.” As we consider the literary history of modern diagnostic categories such as autism spectrum, attention deficit, and OCD (including depictions of distraction in Tristram Shandy, Jane Austen’s use of contemporary theories of head injury, and modern portrayals of disability in YA fiction), we will also explore therapeutic uses of literature, music, and art in proposed clinical treatments of everything from depression, anxiety, and PTSD to Alzheimers and stuttering. Throughout, we will read key works in  cognitive approaches to fiction, disability studies, and medical humanities, exploring both the power—and the profound challenges—of integrating scientific and literary-critical approaches to conduct authentically interdisciplinary work in medical humanities. The seminar will conclude by exploring work in the neuroscience of reading, with a focus on  alternate styles of literary engagement and presentation, including braille, American Sign Language, audio-books, and various Kindle/iPad apps for “assisted” reading. Students will learn to use scientific databases, such as PubMed, to find the latest studies in neurobiology, developmental psychology, cognitive linguistics, and neuroaesthetics. Alongside their final research paper, students will work collaboratively to brainstorm and design an interdisciplinary experiment that imagines using technologies from cognitive science—such as fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), EEG, or eye-tracking—to explore a central question at the intersection of literature and medicine.

Spring 2020

• DH491/891 - Dangerous Tech: Surveillance and the Rhetoric of Data

• Prof Christina Boyles
• This course uses an anti-colonial framework to analyze the ethics surrounding physical and digital surveillance methods, including the use of algorithms, biometrics, social media, and physical data. We will examine the ways in which communities experience surveillance differently, based on factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status. To do so, we will read the work of leading scholars like Simone Browne and Safiya Noble, conduct self-assessments to determine our own participation in surveillance culture, discuss new surveillance technologies and how they relate to previous surveillance methodologies, and develop language/policy to encourage the ethical and equitable treatment of all members of our community.

• ANP412 - Method and Practice in Digital Heritage

• Tues/Thurs 10:20-11:40
• Prof Ethan Watrall
• Digital technology has transformed everything about how heritage collections,

materials, data, objects, sites, and landscapes are documented, preserved, and presented. Museums, libraries, archives, sites of memory and memorialization,

world heritage and archaeological sites, and cultural landscapes all wrestle with how to best use digital methods and computational approaches to document and preserve materials, provide broad access to collections, and engage with the public.
ANP 412: Method & Practice in Digital Heritage introduces students to the critical skills necessary to build thoughtful and engaging digital heritage experiences and applications. Topics include project development and management, digitization, building digital libraries and archives, 3D capture and presentation, working with digital data, digital cultural mapping, mobile heritage, physical computing, digital preservation & sustainability. In addition to challenging students to build and experiment, the class also explore the legal, policy, and ethical issues that shape and inform the practice of digital heritage.

• ENG391 - Introduction to Digital Media Studies

• Tues/Thurs, 3:00-4:20pm
• Prof Kathleen Fitzpatrick
• The class will explore the origins and evolution of digital modes of representation and communication and will dig into contemporary issues of identity, community, labor, and the like, with readings in a variety of critical and theoretical texts as well as more direct study of digital media texts, platforms, and networks.

• HST 452, Sec 002 - Special Topics in Byzantine Environment and Landscape seminar

• Tues/Thurs, 1:00-2:20pm
• Prof Alice Lynn McMichael
• This course will cover special topics in the history of Europe with a focus on Byzantine Environment and Landscape. Byzantium is the name given to the vast and diverse Eastern Roman empire as it existed between ca. 313-1453 CE in the Mediterranean and Anatolia. Lectures and class discussions will incorporate secondary readings and primary sources, both textual and material, about Byzantine geography, culture, urbanism, and natural environment. This is a content-driven seminar with emphasis on data literacy and digital research methods such as mapping and text analysis. This class will introduce students to a variety of approaches to answering historical research questions. Students will be expected to produce original historical research using traditional and digital methods. Feel free to email Dr. A.L. McMichael at mcmich17@msu.edu with any questions.

• HST489 - Seminar in Digital History

• Mon/Wed, 3:00-4:20pm
• Prof. Sharon Leon

• WRA453 - Grant and Proposal Writing

• Mon/Wed 5:00-6:20pm

• WRA491-001 - Computational Thinking

• Tues/Thurs 12:40-2:30pm