{"id":327,"date":"2017-10-30T15:04:27","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T15:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/cmap\/?p=327"},"modified":"2017-10-30T15:04:56","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T15:04:56","slug":"dh-enhanced-ug-course-by-cmap-student-kellie-cavagnaro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/cmap\/2017\/10\/30\/dh-enhanced-ug-course-by-cmap-student-kellie-cavagnaro\/","title":{"rendered":"DH-Enhanced UG Course by CMAP student Kellie Cavagnaro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthropologist Kellie Cavagnaro is a graduate student\u00a0in\u00a0Vanderbilt\u2019s\u00a0Comparative Media Analysis and Practice (CMAP)<\/a>\u00a0joint-PhD program.\u00a0 Building on her CMAP and Digital Humanities experience at Vanderbilt, she will offer a new undergraduate course in Spring 2018 that\u00a0will integrate a series of curricular and instructional designs that connect students with on-campus media experts, and structure class time to include hands-on digital project lab hours as matriculates learn basic skills in audio recording and mixing, photo composition, and digital video editing to produce multimedia essays that critically engage and respond to course readings.<\/em><\/p>\n

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What does it mean to take undergraduate coursework from a Digital Humanities perspective?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Digital Humanities<\/em>\u00a0describes a set of methodological approaches to humanistic and social science inquiry that incorporate various media and technology and apply these to solving social or cultural questions. \u00a0From my perspective as an anthropologist, I am designing this course in a way that will connect students with on-campus media experts, and structure their class time to include hands-on digital project lab hours.<\/p>\n

There are many working definitions of anthropology as both an academic discipline and a social scientific practice. It is true to say that\u00a0Anthropology<\/em>\u00a0is the study of human diversity throughout history, and in the present. There are generally four facets of anthropological study and they include a focus on material histories (archaeology) biological realities (physical anthropology) and multimodal forms of human communication (linguistic anthropology).\u00a0\u00a0Cultural\u00a0<\/em>anthropology, which this course will explore in depth, is the study of how people structure and understand their lives and the world around them. It is also true to say that anthropology, as a practice, is the endeavor to make the world safer for human diversity in all its forms.<\/p>\n

As the expanding global communications of the 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century bring unprecedented groups of people\u2014from various relative power positionings\u2014 into contact with one another, considering our dynamic relationships with digital technology becomes part of that practice. In my course, students will learn basic skills in audio recording and mixing, photo composition, and digital video editing to produce multimedia essays that critically engage and respond to course readings. Indeed, in the emergent model of\u00a0Digital Humanities\u00a0<\/em>courses, the term \u2018readings\u2019 shall no longer suffice; syllabi are expanded to include\u00a0listenings\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0viewings<\/em>\u00a0in addition to texts. In\u00a0A DH Introduction to Cultural Anthropology,\u00a0<\/em>we will immerse ourselves in perspectival podcasts and eco-cultural documentaries alongside our reading of classic, textual ethnographies. We will give consideration to the relationship between the medium and the message as we practice producing multimodal essays that consider broader questions of race, gender, power, identity and the state.<\/p>\n

To better engage with digital humanities methodologies, our classes will not be centered around lectures, but will instead follow a\u00a0project-based learning<\/em><\/a>\u00a0format that utilizes the concept of\u00a0the\u00a0flipped classroom<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0Students will independently engage their readings, viewings and listenings before the class assigned, and be briefly evaluated on their course material comprehension each week at the beginning of class. In this way, I am able to see that students fully grasp the material, so that we can use much of our instruction time on hands-on projects that apply the course concepts in digital, and at times collaborative, projects that stem from the course objectives:<\/p>\n