Local DH Training Opportunities
Since the digital humanities is an emerging field, without a specific home department, finding training can be feel difficult — or at least, labor-intensive. To make things easier, we’ve collected a list of local resources at UW that deal with common topics in digital humanities, and/or which provide guidance or training in one or more DH practices (i.e. programming languages, project management, document analysis, etc.) This resource list includes both quarter-long undergraduate and graduate courses, and short workshops presented by UW Libraries and UW-IT.
If you know of a local DH training opportunity that is not listed here, please feel free to send it to us for review.
Winter Quarter Registration Update: the listings below will be updated in the coming weeks to reflect winter quarter offerings. You’ll find these offerings by scrolling, and looking for the highlighted sections of text, or by searching for “WIN2015.”
DH Project Participation Opportunities
Svoboda Diaries Project
Newbook Digital Texts
The Svoboda Diaries Project and other Newbook Digital Texts publications projects are UW-based digital humanities projects focused on the publication of primary sources. These projects usually have room for undergraduate researchers who participate in all aspects of production, from transcribing and marking up the texts (with XML-TEI), to working on practical problems with XML, XSLT, PYTHON, PHP, HTML, project and website management, and other related tools. Project participants are trained at a basic level and, project staff can help them with their own self-study. Graduate Students and Faculty with projects that involve the publication of primary sources might also benefit from working as collaborators in these projects and interacting with present collaborators and staff. Undergraduates are urged but not required to sign up for 1-3 independent study credits.
These opportunities are ongoing from quarter to quarter. For more information, or to register, contact Walter Andrews.
UW Learning Technologies Workshops
UW Libraries and UW-IT have teamed up to offer courses in a wide variety of technologies that are of interest to the UW community: everything from basic to more advanced programming languages (PHP, MySQL), photo and sound editing tools (Photoshop, InDesign), and pedagogical platforms (Tegrity, Canvas).
These workshops are usually one or two sessions, and 90 minutes to 2 hours long — so they don’t represent a huge time commitment or investment. While you shouldn’t expect to emerge as a programming ace at the end of a single workshop, you can start to get a feel for what working with a particular platform is like.
The courses are taught by various UW staff, including undergraduate student workers. The quality of the workshops can vary a little, depending on whether the instructor uses the tool in question regularly, or just occasionally. In general, however, they’re helpful — not to mention free.
Knowing your learning style is important to succeeding in these workshops. Some people will prefer to seek out a very thorough reference book and work through it, section by section, using the index to find answers to specific questions. For others, it’s easier to learn a new skill if you’re with other people, and if you know that a live person is available to help you if you get stuck. If you’re this latter, more social type of learner, then the UW Learning Technologies workshops are likely to be a good fit for you.
Workshops are scheduled throughout each quarter — we recommend checking back frequently, especially just before the start of registration. You’ll need your UW NetID in order to register.
Click to see a list current and upcoming workshops at the UW Learning Technologies site.
Full-length Seminars and Courses
While some of the listed courses deal with technical skills, others deal with non-technical aspects — the role that computers play in everyday life, as well as political, ethical, and copyright issues.
One of the challenges of studying DH along with your traditional degree program is fitting in extracurricular courses with your standard coursework. For this reason, we have avoided (in most cases) recommending courses which require substantial prerequisites. Even so, we strongly recommend that you discuss your course scheduling with your advisor(s) and/or mentors as you develop your knowledge. While some of the courses we have recommended below are undergraduate courses, they still require a substantial time commitment — just as undergraduate foreign language courses do.
This schedule lists the quarters which each course is offered (or projected to be offered). As soon as winter and spring course schedules are available, we’ll update with new information.
Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Courses
Geography (GEOG) Courses
Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) Courses
Informatics (INFX/INFO) Courses
Library and Information Science (LIS) Courses
Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Courses
CSE 142: Computer Programming I (5 credits)
Basic programming-in-the-small abilities and concepts including procedural programming (methods, parameters, return values) , basic control structures (sequence, if/else, for loop, while loop), file processing, arrays and an introduction to defining objects.
Offered: all quarters (AWSpS)
CSE 143: Computer Programming II (5 credits)
Continuation of 142. Concepts of data abstraction and encapsulation including stacks, queues, linked lists, binary trees, recursion, instruction to complexity and use of predefined collection classes. Prerequisite: CSE 142.
Offered: all quarters (AWSpS)
CSE 154: Web Programming (5 credits)
Covers languages, tools, and techniques for developing interactive and dynamic web pages. Topics include page styling, design, and layout; client and server side scripting; web security; and interacting with data sources such as databases.
Prerequisite: 2.0 in CSE 142; recommended: CSE 143.
Offered: AUT 2014
CSE 190a: WICSE Seminar (1 credit)
A one-credit seminar linked to one section of CSE 142. An exploration of the world of women in computer science & computer engineering. Through weekly group discussions, hands-on activities, and special guests, we will focus on the stories of women who are at different stages of their careers in Computer Science and Engineering. (Was CSE 490W, CSE 490E.)
Offered: AUT 2014 (must be registered in CSE 142/143)
CSE 190m: Web Programming (4 credits)
This course will expose students to the techniques used in programming web pages for interactive content. In particular, the course builds on the power of AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) to design web pages that dynamically interact with databases that reside on a server. The course begins by reviewing basic web technologies (HTML, CSS stylesheets) and exploring the use of event-driven programming in Javascript to add interactive elements such as buttons and text fields to web pages. Next, students will use AJAX tools to build web pages that connect to servers like Google to dynamically access data (maps, search results, videos, images, etc). Finally, the course will show students how to write their own server-side code to provide access to a custom database. The course ends with a two-week group project.
Offered: Occasionally — check back closer to Spring 2015 registration
CSE 311: Foundations Of Computing I (4 credits)
Examines fundamentals of logic, set theory, induction, and algebraic structures with applications to computing; finite state machines; and limits of computability.
Prerequisite: CSE 143; either MATH 126 or MATH 136.
Offered: AUT 2014
CSE 312 Foundations of Computing II (4 credits)
Examines fundamentals of enumeration and discrete probability; applications of randomness to computing; polynomial-time versus NP; and NP-completeness.
Prerequisite: CSE 311; CSE 332
Offered: AUT 2014
CSE 331 Software Design and Implementation (4 credits)
Explores concepts and techniques for design and construction of reliable and maintainable software systems in modern high-level languages; program structure and design; program-correctness approaches, including testing; and event-driven programming (e.g., graphical user interface). Includes substantial project and software-team experience.
Prerequisite: CSE 143
Offered: AUT 2014
CSE 341: Programming Languages (4 credits)
Basic concepts of programming languages, including abstraction mechanisms, types, and scoping. Detailed study of several different programming paradigms, such as functional, object-oriented, and logic programming. No credit if CSE 413 has been taken.
Prerequisite: CSE 143
Offered: AUT 2014
CSE 332 Data Abstractions (4 credits)
Covers abstract data types and structures including dictionaries, balanced trees, hash tables, priority queues, and graphs; sorting; asymptotic analysis; fundamental graph algorithms including graph search, shortest path, and minimum spanning trees; concurrency and synchronization; and parallelism.
Prerequisite: either CSE 311 or CSE 321
Offered: AUT 2014
CSE 333 Systems Programming (4 credits)
Includes substantial programming experience in languages that expose machine characteristics and low-level data representation (e.g., C and C++); explicit memory management; interacting with operating-system services; and cache-aware programming.
Prerequisite: CSE 351
Offered: AUT 2014
CSE 344: Introduction To Data Management (4 credits)
Introduces database management systems and writing applications that use such systems; data models (e.g., relational, semi-structured), query languages (e.g., SQL, XQuery), language bindings, conceptual modeling, transactions, security, database tuning, data warehousing, parallelism, and Web-data management.
Prerequisite: either CSE 311 or CSE 321.
Offered: AUT 2014
CSE 351 The Hardware/Software Interface (4 credits)
Examines key computational abstraction levels below modern high-level languages; number representation, assembly language, introduction to C, memory management, the operating-system process model, high-level machine architecture including the memory hierarchy, and how high-level languages are implemented.
Prerequisite: CSE 143
Offered: AUT 2014
CSE 352 Hardware Design and Implementation (4 credits)
Covers digital circuit design, processor design, and systems integration and embedded-systems issues. Includes substantial hardware laboratory.
Prerequisite: CSE 311; CSE 351
Offered: AUT 2014
CSE 373 Data Structures and Algorithms (3 credits)
Fundamental algorithms and data structures for implementation. Techniques for solving problems by programming. Linked lists, stacks, queues, directed graphs. Trees: representations, traversals. Searching (hashing, binary search trees, multiway trees). Garbage collection, memory management. Internal and external sorting. Intended for non-majors. Not open for credit to students who have completed CSE 326 or CSE 332.
Prerequisite: CSE 143
Offered: AUT 2014
Geography (GEOG) Courses
GEOG 258 Digital Geographies (5 credits)
Explores the use and societal impacts of contemporary digital spatial technologies. Focuses on internet mapping, handheld geographic technologies, location-based services, spatial applications of social media, the geoweb, and traditional GIS. Develops hands-on experience using online digital spatial tools for geovisual representation, and skills for evaluation/critique of digital data and maps.
Offered: Check back in Winter
GEOG 317 Geographic Information and Spatial Analysis (5 credits)
Integrates geographic information systems and spatial data analysis, emphasizing the appropriate selection of methods, procedures for research design, and interpretation of findings. Topics include descriptive and inferential methods, spatial patterns and statistics, and correlation and spatial autocorrelation. Applications use SPSS and ArcMap software.
Offered: Check back in Winter
GEOG 360 Principles of GIS Mapping (5 credits)
Origins, development, and methods of cartographic mapping. Principles of data representation and map design for thematic mapping and spatial analysis. Introduction to principles of geographic information systems. Not available for credit to students who have completed
Prerequisites: GEOG 362.
Offered: ASp
GEOG 482 GIS Data Management (5 credits)
Examines the principles and application of geospatial database management software, including personal and enterprise geodatabase management solutions. Considers enterprise architectures for GIS relative to organizational size. Addresses collaborative uses of Internet, Intranet, and Extranet architectures. Offers case studies in database management, with a variety of dataset types and sizes.
Prerequisite: GEOG 360.
Offered: AUT2014
GEOG 560 Principles of GIS Mapping (5 credits)
Origins, development, and methods of cartographic mapping. Principles of data representation and map design for thematic mapping and spatial analysis. Introduction of principles of geographic information systems (GIS).
Offered: AUT2014
GEOG 582 GIS Data Management (5 credits)
Examines the principles and application of geospatial database management software, including personal and enterprise geodatabase management solutions. Considers enterprise architectures for GIS relative to organizational size. Addresses collaborative uses of Internet, Intranet, and Extranet architectures. Offers case studies in database management, with a variety of dataset types and sizes.
Offered: AUT2014
Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) Courses
HCDE 100 Introduction to Human Centered Design & Engineering (5 credits)
Topics may include: virtual communities, human-computer interaction, web design, usability testing, visual design, and others. Explores course content through individual and group hands-on projects.
Offered: Check back in Winter
HCDE 300 Foundations of Human Centered Design & Engineering (5 credits)
Examines principles and practices of human centered design and engineering. Includes overview of conceptual problems in human centered design and engineering, issues related to communicating scientific and technical information to a variety of audiences, and human centered design approaches. Includes attention to social contexts and environments (legal, ethical, cultural).
Offered: Check back in winter
HCDE 303 Project Management & Computer Supported Collaborative Work (3 credits)
Addresses how to understand and manage communication practices and projects in scientific and technical organizations. Topics include: system design, project design, supporting workflow, communication practices, information structures, and planning. Focus on CMC and CSCW principles and practices.
Offered: Check back in winter
HCDE 310 Interactive Systems Design and Technology (5 credits)
Provides opportunities to identify and build interactive systems to solve problems in human centered design and engineering. Students specify, design, build, and justify design solutions in terms of user experience and technical design choices.
Prerequisite: either CSE 140 or CSE 142.
Offered: AUT2014
HCDE 496 Directed Research in Human Centered Design & Engineering (1–3 credits, max. 10 credits allowed over multiple quarters)
Students, working in teams under the supervision of individual faculty members, review relevant literature, pose research questions, design and conduct studies, and present the results in papers prepared either for submission to a professional journal or for presentation at a professional conference. Credit/No Credit only. Current Directed Research Group Descriptions
Offered: AUT2014
Informatics (INFX/INFO) Courses
INFO 340 Introduction to Relational Database Management Systems (5 credits)
Introduction to relational database management systems, focused on relational theory and the application of conceptual, logical, and physical database modeling. Key topics include the relational model, SQL, entity-relationship modeling, three-tier architectures, implementation of database applications, and related topics in information systems.
Prerequisite: CSE 142
Offered: AUT2014
INFO 360 Design Thinking (5) I&S
Introduces design methods for identifying user needs, devising new design concepts, prototyping these concepts, and evaluating their utility and usability. Introduces the theory and practice of user-centered design. Examines methods for identifying users’ needs, understanding users’ behaviors, envisioning and prototyping new systems, and evaluating the usability of systems. Emphasis on incorporating people in the design process from initial field observations to summative usability testing.
Prerequisites: N/A
Offered: AUT2014
INFO 424 Information Visualization and Aesthetics (5 Credits)
Examines the visualization of information: the effects of human perception, the aesthetics of information design, the mechanics of visual display, and the semiotics of iconography. Examples may include census, epidemiological, crime, earth satellite, and medical data in the contexts of special computer applications, user populations, and cultures.
Prerequisite: CSE 143
Offered: AUT2014
INFX 501 Concepts in Algorithmic Thinking for Information (1 credit)
Presents programming concepts in the context of information science including the concepts of the algorithm, data storage, expressions, syntax, logic, objects, commands, and events. Introduces the algorithmic manipulation of information objects, and the mindset and methods of computer programming and application development. Credit/no-credit only.
Offered: AUT2014
INFX 502 Database Concepts for Information Professionals (1 credit)
Introduces the terminology and concepts of working with relational database management systems. Emphasizes working with tables and extracting information from data using Structures Query Language (SQL) commands and tools. Credit/no-credit only.
Offered: AUT2014, WIN2015, SPR2015 (projected)
INFX 503 Website Design Concepts for information Professionals (1 credit)
Introduces the context and construction of websites presenting an integrated understanding of web design principles, information behavior, and technical skills. Emphasizes the roll of markup in information display and organization, the development of large sites, web strategy, and site construction. Credit/no-credit only.
Offered: AUT2014, WIN2015, SPR2015 (projected)
INFX 504 Networking and Network Applications for Information Professionals (1 credit)
Introduces the concepts, terminology, and technologies of digital networks, including how networks operate and the influence networks have on the workplace and society. Includes preparation to think critically about the impacts of networking technologies on organizations, work groups, and information systems. Credit/no-credit only.
Offered: AUT2014, WIN2015, SPR2015 (projected)
INFX 505 Project Management Basics for Information Professionals (1 credit)
Introduces the terminology, concepts, and skills used in working with project management and project management software. Emphasizes developing, refining, and monitoring work schedules using software tools.
Offered: AUT2014, WIN2015, SPR2015 (projected)
INFX 531 Metadata Design (3 credits)
Design principles of metadata schemas and application profiles – implementation of interoperable application profiles using XML technology. Focuses on achieving syntactic and semantic interoperability among diverse metadata schemas and application profiles.
Prerequisite: either LIS 530 or IMT 530; INFX 542; or permission of instructor.
Offered: AUT2014
INFX 532 Ontology Design (3 credits)
Studies semantic interoperability among different metadata schemas and ontologies. Elaborates on concepts and technology related to Topic Maps, RDF Schema, and Web Ontology Language (OWL) to achieve advanced and semantic data modeling of complex data that exist in the real world.
Prerequisite: INFX 531 or permission of instructor.
Offered: SPR2015 (projected)
INFX 538 Metadata Design Studio (4 credits)
Principles, skills and practices in the conceptualization and implementation of metadata systems with a focus on semantic web. Project-based exploration of domain and abstract data modeling, attribute/value space definition, and machine encoding decision.
Prerequisite: either LIS 530 or IMT 530; INFX 542; or permission of instructor.
Offered: Check back in winter
INFX 542 Information Structures Using XML (4 credits)
Introduces the concepts and methods used to analyze, store, manage, and present information and navigation. Equal weight given to understanding structures and implementing them. Topics include information analysis and organizational methods as well as XML and metadata concepts and application.
Prerequisite: INFX 503.
Offered: AUT2014, WIN2015, SPR2015 (projected)
INFX 543 Relational Database Management Systems (4 credits)
Introduction to relational database design and development theory, concepts, and skills, including traditional transactional database theory, architecture, and implementation in a user-centered systems context using SQL. Introduces database modeling, security, and privacy issues.
Prerequisite: INFX 502 or permission of instructor.
Offered: AUT2014, WIN2015, SPR2015 (projected)
INFX 544 Information Retrieval Systems (3 credits)
Introduction to theory and models in information retrieval and the systems for storage and retrieval of unstructured information. Examines information retrieval architectures, processes, retrieval models, query languages, and methods of system evaluation, methods and tools for document analysis, interfaces, and usability.
Offered: Check back in winter
INFX 547 Social Media Data Mining and Analysis (4 credits)
Explores techniques for collecting and analyzing social media. Students gain direct experience with methods for collecting a social media corpus, defining features of activity that are relevant for analysis, and analyzing those features.
Prerequisite: either INFX 501 or permission of instructor.
Offered: Check back in winter
INFX 563 Advanced Relational Database Management Systems (4 credits)
Advanced relational database design and development theory using SQL, concepts, and skills. Topics include advanced T-SQL; backup and recovery; and triggers and reporting services.
Prerequisite: INFX 501; INFX 543.
Offered: AUT2014
INFX 573 Introduction to Data Science (4)
Provides an overview of key concepts, skills, and technologies used by data scientists, including inference; machine learning and pattern recognition; storage and scaling; experimental design; and data visualization.
Prerequisite: either Q METH 201, IMT 570, or equivalent college coursework; either CSE 142, INFX 501, or equivalent college coursework
Offered: AUT 2014
I-School Special Topics:
Note: The I-School has several courses that might be useful for people interested in the digital humanities — Find out more at the I-School’s Special Topics page.
Library and Information Science (LIS) Courses
LIS 500 The Life Cycle of Information (2 credits)
Overview of the major concepts, processes and systems, actors, and operations in the life cycle of information. Introduction to the creation, publishing and distribution, evaluation and selection, organization, access, retrieval, and use of information. Exploration of the social context in which these processes and their stakeholders interact. Credit/no-credit only.
Offered: Check back in winter
LIS 505 Archival and Manuscript Services (3 credits)
Selection, organization, and uses of archival and manuscript collections. Emphasis on the principles and techniques; some attention to the administration of state archival and historical institutions’ collections. Lecture, demonstration, and laboratory.
Offered: Check back in Winter
LIS 530 Organization of Information and Resources (4 credits)
Introduction to issues in organization of information and documents including: analysis of intellectual and physical characteristics of documents; principles and practice in surrogate creation, including standards and selection of metadata elements; theory of classification, including semantic relationships and facet analysis; creation of controlled vocabularies; and display and arrangement.
Prerequisite: LIS 500, which may be taken concurrently.
Offered: Check back in Winter
LIS 550 Information and Society (3 credits)
Covers concepts, processes, and issues related to the larger social context within which the life cycle of information and knowledge in society are investigated. Discussion topics include codes of ethics, professionalization, privacy, freedom of expression, intellectual property, social inequalities, and quality of life.
Prerequisite: LIS 500, which may be taken concurrently.
Offered: Check back in winter
LIS 568 Information Literacy for Teaching and Learning (3 credits)
Explores theories, process, and practical applications of information literacy. Examines the development of information literacy programs for libraries, community agencies, business, education or other information settings. Explores integral relationship between technology and information literacy, and continual evaluation.
Offered: Check back in winter
LIS 570 Research, Assessment, and Design (4 credits)
Students recognize research and design opportunities, translate them into researchable frameworks, and conduct research in libraries and other information agencies. Covers problem definition, data collection and analysis, design and validation of alternative solutions, and reporting of results.
Prerequisite: LIS 500, which may be taken concurrently.
Offered: Check back in winter