Digital Humanities in Africa

This hands-on, project-based course introduces students to the use of digital tools and sources to conduct original historical research, analyze or interpret findings, and communicate results. How are digital technologies altering the study of history in the 21st century? What are the new possibilities for digital history moving forward? What are the new problems? Does social media impact the study of history? This courses explores methods, theories, and practices of digital history. Students will analyze the latest readings, seminar discussions, and online blogging within the field. We will also learn through doing by working both individually and collectively on a set of digital history projects. Students are evaluated based on participation in course meetings and blog and vlog projects. Students are also required to complete several reading assignments and a larger final project that applies digital history methods to a historical topic of interest for each student. In order to focus our efforts, we will apply what we learn to a particular area of historical study: the history of African-owned newspapers during the period of colonial rule.