Teaching #
Examples #
Data Environmentalism (University of Southampton) #
This second year elective module (that is, it can be taken by any Humanities student) run by James Baker draws on scholarship from digital media studies, environmental history, computer science, science and technology studies, climate science, creative practice, and archival science, to examine the past, present, and future intersections of data and the natural environment. It starts with some simple statements - that data is material, is produced by people, is made possible by resource extraction, needs power to survive, and inhabits and resculpts the landscape - before expanding out into a range of topics (TESCREALism and the ‘Californian Ideology’, the sacking of Timnit Gebru, pollution as a form of colonialism, energy (dis)proportionality) that encourage humanities students use their skills and perspectives to illuminate and challenge the ecological impacts of computational technologies.
The module ran for the first time in 2022/23. The latest reading list is available here. A few reflections from James:
Three things stand out from my experience of teaching Data Environmentalism. First, students - in the main - really cared, really wanted to know more, and enjoyed the challenge of working in a multi-disciplinary space. Second, they loved the week hooked around Crawford and Joler’s “Anatomy of an Amazon Echo”: I printed a huge copy for us to pour over in class, and that proved really generative. Third, it was extra work, but making the assessment activist focused - a ‘public outcome’ and a reflexive essay on producing the public outcome - was a big win, as it enabled the students to express their interests/fear/anger in forms that they felt had the potential to change things - such as a film on greenwashing in the tech sector or a magazine on NTFs.
Resources #
This section could use your input. Are you embedding climate and sustainability themes in your teaching? Please get involved! Meanwhile, here are a handful of links.
- Moral IT and Legal IT Card Decks: “These physical cards are a responsible research and innovation tool created to enable structured reflection on legal, ethical, technical and social implications of new information technologies.”
- Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: Concepts, Models, and Experiments: peer-reviewed, curated collection of reusable and remixable resources for teaching and research
- GreenIO Podcast: an industry-focused podcast, but shares lots of inspiration and best practice relevant to educational settings too.
- Environmental Variables: another great podcast with a good range of guests and topics related to green software.
- The Programming Historian: novice-friendly, peer-reviewed tutorials that help humanists learn a wide range of digital tools, techniques, and workflows for teaching and research.
- UK-Ireland Digital Humanities Association: the DHCC is a Community Interest Group of UK-IE DH
- DARIAH (Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities): tools and services | training and education
- Association for Computers and the Humanities: front page
- Canadian Society for Digital Humanities: front page
- centerNet: resources page
- Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa: front page
- European Association for Digital Humanities: education
- Australasian Association for Digital Humanities: resources
- Japanese Association for Digital Humanities: resources
- Humanistica: page d’accueil
- Taiwanese Association for the Digital Humanities: front page
- Digital Humanities Alliance for Research and Teaching Innovations: front page
- British Computing Society, Net Zero Digital
- Media, Arts and Humanities Sustainability Educator Toolkit: Not specifically about DH, but does explore how to embed sustainability in any subject
E-Learning