Digital Arts and Humanities Minor

The Digital Arts and Humanities (DGAH) interdisciplinary minor provides students with a framework for studying, understanding, and actively participating in the integration of new digital methods, arts & humanities academic research and creative production. The evolving field of Digital Humanities uses digital tools and computational methods to enhance arts and humanities research and production, while also using traditional humanistic approaches to interrogate the impact of digital technologies. Bridging traditional divides between the humanities, arts, and computational sciences, the minor in Digital Arts and Humanities emphasizes multidisciplinary collaboration and experimentation while encouraging students to both practice and critically reflect on digital creation and interpretation. Students in the DGAH minor will learn to critically evaluate and creatively employ digital media, engage with emergent research questions related to digital culture and practices, and develop the skills that constitute digital fluency in the twenty-first century.

Learning Goals: Students who pursue a DGAH minor will:

  1. Demonstrate proficiency in several disparate digital arts and humanities competencies (e.g. digital communication; data management, analysis and presentation; critical making, design and development)
  2. Learn to reflect critically on the intersection between digital media and methodologies and non-digital materials and texts
  3. Demonstrate an understanding of the social, cultural, political and ethical implications of digital technologies, scholarship, and artistic production
  4. Gain hands-on experience with collaborative, creative, and interdisciplinary digital projects and demonstrate an ability to work both individually and in group settings

Requirements for the Minor

Students must complete at least 44 credits to complete the minor, including an introductory theory and methods course (6 credits) and capstone Digital Arts and Humanities ePortfolio seminar (2 credits).

The remaining 36 credits are drawn from a range of courses that foster digital skills, critical reflection on digital scholarship, and collaborative practices transferable across disciplines. At least 6 credits must be taken from each category (B, C, and D), and at least 12 credits must be at the 200-level or above. Students are strongly encouraged to explore different disciplines and the connections between them in the course of their study, and at least 12 credits must come from courses designated Arts Practice, Humanistic Inquiry or Literary/Artistic Analysis. No more than 12 elective credits may come from any one department and no more than 12 credits may count toward both the student's major and the DGAH minor.

A. Core Courses (6 credits)

The core courses give all students experiences in common by introducing them to a broad range of digital methodologies and ensuring critical reflection on their digital project work in a collaborative setting.

  • DGAH 110 Hacking the Humanities (6 credits) Offered annually, this course features a general introduction to the methods and implications of digital scholarship, as well as hands-on collaborative project work.
  • ENGL 285 Textual Technologies from Parchment to Pixel

B. Skill Building in Digital Media and Methodologies (at least 6 credits)

These courses teach fundamental skills of digital production or analysis including hardware, software, and methods that are widely transferable across the arts and humanities.

C. Critical and Ethical Reflection on Digital Scholarship (at least 6 credits)

Courses that directly engage with the implications of digital technologies and teach students to be critical consumers and producers of digital media.

  • ARTS 140 The Digital Landscape
  • ARTS 339 Advanced Photo: Digital Imaging
  • CAMS 246 Documentary Studies
  • CS 314 Data Visualization
  • CS 344 Human-Computer Interaction
  • ENGL 395 Narrative
  • LCST 245 The Critical Toolbox: Who's Afraid of Theory?
  • MUSC 208 Computer Music and Sound
  • POSC 214 Visual Representations of Political Thought and Action
  • POSC 217 Monuments, Museums & Meaning: How Politics Shapes Memory in Artifacts
  • SPAN 244 Spain Today: Recent Changes through Narrative and Film

D. Cross-disciplinary Collaboration in Digital Projects (at least 6 credits)

Courses that emphasize hands-on, experiential learning by creating digital projects that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries or engage authentically with community partners and public audiences.

  • CS 232 Art, Interactivity, and Robotics
  • CAMS 242 Sound and Music in TV and New Media
  • HIST 210 The Boston Massacre in 3D: Mapping, Modelling and Serious Gaming
  • HIST 235 Bringing the English Past to (Virtual) Life
  • HIST 238 The Viking World
  • HIST 316 History, Nature & Smartphones
  • HIST 338 Digital History, Public Heritage & Deep Mapping
  • MUSC 221 Electronic Music Composition
  • RELG 289 Global Religions in Minnesota
  • SPAN 206 Civic Engagement, Social Change, and the Participatory Video

E. Senior Capstone Experience (2 credits)

  • DGAH 398 Digital Arts & Humanities Portfolio: A Capstone Seminar (2 credits) In this advanced capstone seminar, seniors will create an instructor-guided ePortfolio that curates and critically reflects on the digital experiences in, and products of, courses taken for the minor. If appropriate, this may also highlight digital components of a comps project.

Students may count--with prior approval of both the course instructor and the minor coordinators--other advanced courses (200 or 300 level) in which the minor makes significant use of digital technology to produce a research project or creative product. Additional courses that engage substantially with a significant number of the DGAH learning goals may also be added to this list at the director's discretion in consultation with the committee. Courses from OCS programs and independent studies may be submitted for consideration, but no more than six OCS credits may count towards the minor. For two-credit trailing courses and digital labs that require co-registration, only the digital component will be counted. Repeatable two-credit public outreach courses may be counted for up to six credits.

Digital Arts & Humanities Courses

DGAH 110 Hacking the Humanities The digital world is infiltrating the academy and profoundly disrupting the arts and humanities, posing fundamental challenges to traditional models of university education, scholarly research, academic publication and creative production. This core course for the Digital Arts & Humanities minor introduces the key concepts, debates and technologies that shape DGAH, including text encoding, digital mapping (GIS), network analysis, data visualization, 3D imaging and basic programming languages. Students will learn to hack the humanities by making a collaborative, publishable DH project, while acquiring the skills and confidence necessary to actively participate in the digital world, both in college and beyond. 6 credits; HI, QRE; Winter; Austin P Mason
DGAH 398 Digital Arts & Humanities Portfolio: A Capstone Seminar The work of Digital Arts & Humanities takes place at the crossroads of computing, humanities, and creative production. While digital tools and computational methods can enhance humanities research and artistic production, traditional humanistic approaches must also question digital technologies. Both the processes and products of this work stretch the boundaries of familiar academic formats. In this course, students will create an ePortfolio that curates and critically reflects on the digital processes and products of courses and co-curricular experiences at Carleton, guided by readings on the current state of interdisciplinary digital scholarship. A capstone for the DGAH minor, the seminar will include numerous workshop events and culminate in public portfolio presentations. Prerequisite: Prior digital arts and humanities course work, including but not limited to core DGAH courses. 2 credits; NE; Spring; Austin P Mason