Integrating Digital Humanities Projects with Undergraduate Courses in Area Studies: 2 Case Studies

Abstract

Integrating digital humanities projects into undergraduate instruction in area studies classes can further both instructors' and students' engagement with the material, resulting in final projects that are useful to both researchers and students. These projects increase the amount of area studies-related information and scholarship available online, can be shared with professors' colleagues and added to their portfolios, and serve to expose students to high level writing requirements while increasing their knowledge of trends and tools in digital scholarship. This poster presents two case studies of undergraduate courses in the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, with examples of the final digital humanities projects; input on the roles of faculty members, a librarian, and students as collaborators; and takeaways of positive and negative aspects of creating digital humanities projects in this way. Both projects shown--the Mapping the Avant-Garde and Yugoslav Punk sites--are visually appealing, incorporating elements such as network maps, archival images, and custom-created navigational interfaces. The poster also addresses issues of copyright and student confidentiality that can arise while doing such work.