Not Something, Not Nothing, Not Shakespeare: Digitized Playbooks and the Question of Access in the Undergraduate Literature Classroom

Jordan Windholz

doi:10.3390/h8020061

Abstract

The digital divide is deeply felt by undergraduate students in resource-restricted universities, but creative, if also labor-intensive, solutions exist for instructors negotiating paywalls and other institutional impediments. In this essay, I argue that teaching early modern drama outside the restraints of the Shakespearean archive and through a host of digital archives, databases, and tools not only engages students in inquiry-based, active learning but also cultivates a critical sense of how digital tools obviate and exacerbate questions of access. To make my case, I describe how I designed and taught a course on non-Shakespearean drama for English majors at Shippensburg University, one of Pennyslvania’s state-funded universities. After describing the mechanics of the course, I further theorize and examine the ways centering digital archives, databases, and tools as course texts enables students to think critically about the content available through these resources as well as the information hierarchies and receptions histories they promulgate.

Highlights

The advent and proliferation of digital archives, databases, and tools have prompted many in renaissance and early modern studies to rethink their pedagogical strategies and approaches to the canon
The question of access raised by Hackel and Moulton is an exigent one, especially given that digital archives, databases, and tools hold the promise of radically reforming teaching strategies in the undergraduate classroom
Based on my experience teaching this course, I argue that centering an early modern dramatic literature course around both freely available and paywalled digital archives, databases, and tools enables students to engage in self-directed research and empowers them to analyze critical issues of access surrounding these resources with which digital humanists have long grappled

Summary

Introduction

The advent and proliferation of digital archives, databases, and tools have prompted many in renaissance and early modern studies to rethink their pedagogical strategies and approaches to the canon. In their introduction, Hackel and Moulton acknowledge, “The main professional issue involved in teaching archival materials is that of access” and that “access to online archives is limited, by the cost of subscribing to a database or by the unavailability of classroom technology.”. The question of access raised by Hackel and Moulton is an exigent one, especially given that digital archives, databases, and tools hold the promise of radically reforming teaching strategies in the undergraduate classroom. Based on my experience teaching this course, I argue that centering an early modern dramatic literature course around both freely available and paywalled digital archives, databases, and tools enables students to engage in self-directed research and empowers them to analyze critical issues of access surrounding these resources with which digital humanists have long grappled. I end with a brief reflection on the limits of the course and where further refinement may be needed

Not Something but Not Nothing

Conclusions