Book History and Digital Humanities
Advisors: Drs. Ann R. Hawkins and Jennifer Snead
The new interdisciplinary minor in Book History and Digital Humanities allows students to investigate many disciplines, including but not limited to the history of ideas, the history of religion, literature, technological communication, economics, fine art and art history, the study of cognition and education, communication studies, and anthropology.
Courses in the minor include information related to materiality of texts (writ large), to technological change, to reading, readership, reception, to cognition and the brain, to historical contexts related to text production, to censorship and seditious printing, etc.
Required Courses: choose 2
- English 2312: Texts, Discourse and Technologies Coming Spring 2015!!!
Catalog Description: Survey of technologies of text production, publication, and consumption, from manuscript, through the printing press, to the Internet, and across cultures
Course Purpose: Students will learn to analyze and discuss the history and social impact of the technologies involved in text production, including writing systems, manuscript, the printing press, industrialization, and digitization. Because these technologies have developed in (and developed differently in) a variety of cultures, students will learn about dynamics between technology and culture, such as the development of paper and movable type in China, the development of the printing press in Europe, and the intercultural growth of the Internet and social media technologies. Lectures and student projects will examine how particular moments in the history of the book engage with cultural and social change: for example, how the printing press enabled the pamphlet wars leading to the social and political disruption of the French Revolution, and how those debates were communicated through a variety of means (print, visual, oral) throughout Europe and beyond; how literacy efforts such as the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge worked to expand access to education and information to the lower classes; how emerging social media catalyze and enable global activism and democratic movements; etc. Students will learn the best practices of communicating ethically in a digital environment by participating in a service learning project focused on civic engagement
Taught in two sections by Dr. Craig Baehr and Ann Hawkins
- History 3354: History of 20thC Europe
- English 3360: Issues in Composition (when taught as Technologies of Writing) ~
Elective Courses: choose up to 3
- Anthropology 3348: Intro to Historical Archaeology
- English 3382: Women Writers ~
- English 4313: When subtitled as History of the Book
- Geology 3323: Environmental Geology
- Geology 4318: Geology of Texas
- History 3327: Survey of American Environmental History
- History 3328: History of Religion in America
- History 3360: The British Isles, to 1660 ~
- History 3352: History of Modern Italy
- History 3354: Twentieth-century Europe
- History 3350: War, Religion, and Revolution: Early Modern Europe
- History 4348: The Renaissance
- History 4373: Tudor and Stuart England
- Philosophy 3340: Minds, Brains, and Computers
- Philosophy 2350: World Religions and Philosophy
- Philosophy 4331: Philosophy and Language
- Philosophy 3341: Philosophy of Literature
- Psychology 4343: Language and Literacy Research and Applications
Note: ~ indicates the course must be taught by a specific instructor to fulfill the requirements of the minor
Electives outside of the College of Arts and Sciences
Note: students may take no more than 6 hours outside A/S to fulfill minor.
- Art history 4307: History of the Book as Art
- Art history 4335: Arts of Pre-Columbian America
- Art history 4340: Art of the Renaissance
- Architecture 4324: Introduction to Historic Preservation
Putting it together...
The following list suggests ways that the courses could be put together. The advisors of the Interdisciplinary Minor in Book History and Digital Humanities will help students match their interests to particular courses.
• Digital and Material Texts (ANTHR 3348; ENGL 2312, 3382, 4313; CLAS3304; COMMST 3332; GEOL 3323, 4318; HIST 3328, 3360, 4373; PHIL 3340, 2350; ARTH 4307, 4335)
• Historical Contexts (ANTHR 3348; ENGL 2312, 3382, 4321; CLAS3304; COMMST 3318, 3332; GERM 3313; GEOL 3323, 4318; HIST 3327, 3328, 3360, 3352, 3354, 3350, 4348, 4373; PHIL 2350, 3340, 3341; ARTH 4307, 4335, 4340)
• Politics of the Book (ANTHR 3348; ENGL 2312, 3382, 4313; COMMST 3318, 3332; HIST 3327, 3328, 3360, 3352, 3354, 3350, 4348, 4373; ARTH 4307, 4335, 4340)
• Economics of the Book (ANTHR 3348; ENGL 2312, 3382, 4313; COMMST 3318, 3332; HIST 3327, 3328, 3360, 3352, 3354, 3350, 4348, 4373; ARTH 4307, 4335, 4340
• Readers and Reading (issues of reading, cognition, reception) (ANTHR 3348; ENGL 2312, 3382, 4313; COMMST 3318, 3332; GERM 3313; HIST 3327, 3328, 3360, 3352, 3354, 3350, 4348, 4373; PHIL 3340, 4331, 3341; PSYCH 4343; ARTH 4307, 4335, 4340