Technologies of History from Cuneiform to Coding #

Course Description #

This course will ask how the ways that humans communicate—via inscription, graffito, letter, or Tweet—have the power to affect society and make history. We will explore the history of communications technologies from the invention of writing to the printing press to social media, and each week, we will pair these topics with analysis of a cutting-edge digital archive or project. Students will then learn how to use the “digital tools” reflected in these projects, building the skills necessary to produce their own works of digital historical scholarship.

This course has two interconnected aims: to introduce students to the history of communications technology from the ancient Near East to the modern U.S. and to interrogate how contemporary digital communications technology shapes our study of the creation, circulation, and transmission of historical knowledge. Close engagement with digital archives will allow students to view and appreciate the material texts of the past, but it will also allow students to analyze how digital archives make historical arguments through the representation and presentation of sources. Students will learn about the limitations of digital archives, both as representations of material objects and as ephemeral—and often fragile—sources in their own right, while also developing the digital skills to create their own works of historical scholarship for publication.

Course Learning Outcomes #

By the end of the semester, you will:

1. Build historical knowledge:
   • Identify the most significant trends and figures within the history of the communications technology.
   • Connect and synthesize historical examples to develop conclusions about the nature, causes, and consequences of communications “revolutions.”
2. Develop digital historical methods:
   • Evaluate evidence from primary sources as presented in various digital archives.
   • Recognize archives as an interpretive presentation of evidence from the human past, created by historians and archivists in the present.
3. Apply digital historical skills:
   • Use digital tools to analyze primary sources and communicate historical knowledge.
   • Create a piece of digital scholarship that meets accessibility and durability standards as developed by digital humanists.

Course Meetings #

Our course will meet twice per week: Tuesdays will begin with a short lecture, followed by discussion of secondary scholarship. Thursdays are our “digital lab” days, in which we will discuss a particular digital archive or project relevant to that week’s topic, and learn about a particular digital tool and explore its applicability for presenting historical knowledge to a wider public.

Contact #

My preferred method of contact is email: m.reynolds1(at)tcu.edu. I will do my best to return emails received M-F within 24 hours; emails received after 6 pm on Fridays may not receive a response until Monday morning.

Students are also welcome to discuss our course in office hours (T/Th, 2:00 to 3:30 pm), or to schedule an appointment outside of those times.