Syllabus #

Course & Instructor Information #

Course #

Course Title and Number: Technologies of History from Cuneiform to Coding (HIST 30693)
Semester: Spring 2026 Number of Credits: 3
Course Component Type: SEM
Class Location: TBD
Class Meeting Day(s) & Time(s): TBD

Instructor #

Instructor Name: Dr. Melissa Reynolds
Office Location: Reed Hall 330
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 1:00 – 3:00 pm
Preferred Method of Contact: Email
Email: m.reynolds1(at)tcu.edu

Final Evaluative Exercise & Important Dates #

Reflection Paper due in lieu of final exam

Student Resources & Policy Information #

Note for students: The syllabus is your first course reading. It provides an orientation to, overview of the flow, and expectations of the course. You should turn to the syllabus for details on assignments and course policies.

Click here for resources to support you as a student. Please note the section on Student Access and Accomodation, Academic Conduct & Course Materials Policies, and Emergency Response & TCU Alert.

Course Description #

Catalogue 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.

Prerequisites & Concurrent Enrollment #

None.

Course Materials #

Required Materials #

All of our course readings will be available via links from this site, or as PDFs on our course D2L site.

Teaching Philosophy and Methodology #

My primary goal within the classroom is to teach historical contingency. People in the past didn’t know that things would turn out the way they did! We look back and see one event following the other in what looks to us like a coherent narrative, but in fact, we (historians) are the ones who made that narrative seem so coherent. As we learn about the events and ideas that contributed to various “communications revolutions,” you should be on the lookout for all the ways history might have turned out differently.

Once you begin to think of history as contingent, you can begin to develop the critical methods historians use in their work. In this course, we will analyze primary sources (sources created by historical actors rather than by contemporary historians) as they are presented in digital archives created by contemporary historians. Not only will we assess how this primary source evidence inform our understanding of the past, we will also explore how the presentation of that evidence shapes the narratives we tell about the past.

Whether history majors or computer scientists, mathematicians or business majors, you will leave our classroom with analytical and interpretive skills that will serve you throughout your life. These include the ability to recognize that ideas emerge in a context that is unique to its time and place; the ability to recognize a reputable and relevant source; the ability to analyze those sources; and the ability to use those sources to support a historical argument.

Learning Outcomes #

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

TCU Outcomes #

HT (Historical Traditions): Examine the processes that create change over time in the human experience.
GA (Global Awareness): Analyze the dynamics, processes, or legacies of global systems.

Course Requirements #

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 learn about a particular digital tool and explore its applicability for presenting historical knowledge to a wider public.

In-Class Reading Responses #

Students will be expected to complete 30–50 pages of reading of historical scholarship every week. At the instructor’s discretion, students will be asked to respond to these readings in brief in-class writings assignments, which will assess the student’s completion and comprehension of the readings and challenge the student to think critically about their historical arguments. Responses will be graded as Fail/Pass/Excel according to the following criteria:

• Fail (50%): The assignment was completed with no evidence of student engagement with the readings.
• Pass (80%): The assignment was completed, with some evidence of student engagement with the reading.
• Excel (100%): The assignment was completed, with evidence of considerable student engagement with the reading.

In-class writing assignments may not be made up. If an assignment is missed due to an excused absence, you will receive an “NG” (No Grade). If an assignment is missed due to an unexcused absence, you will receive a zero. Your lowest grade on these assignments will be dropped at the end of the semester.

Digital Tools Assignments #

Digital Tools Assignment #1: Communicating Simply
In this assignment, students will produce a blog post reflecting on how the nature of a communication technology informs the structures of knowledge that it can communicate. Students will write about the emergence of writing systems in the ancient world in relation to the development of “simple” or “static” communications technologies for digital scholarship. Students will produce this assignment using those simple digital tools: in Markdown syntax, for publication on our Hugo-run course site, hosted through our course GitHub, thus demonstrating mastery of foundational digital skills.

Digital Tools Assignment #2: Showing History
In this assignment, students will produce a blog post that reflects on the presence of public writing—in this case, Roman epigraphy—as a marker of complex civilization. Using epigraphic data from the Heidelberg database, students will create a static post discussing the at least four surviving artifacts of Roman epigraphy. This post will include an embedded Google MyMaps with the modern location of these artifacts, as well as an embedded IIIF viewer so that users can compare epigraphic images side-by-side.

Digital Tools Assignment #3: Making Text into Data
In this assignment, students will produce a TEI-encoded transcription of a medical recipe from a fifteenth-century manuscript as a means of understanding the relationship between writing and doing in the early modern world. Students will contribute their transcription to an XML file in our course GitHub repository, which the class will then publish using the digital publication tool, EditionCrafter. Each student will also be responsible for producing a brief blog post describing the materials and methods represented in their medical recipe.

Digital Tools Assignment #4: Mapping History
In this assignment, students will produce a blog post reflecting on how maps are interpretive pieces of communication that reflect cultural assumptions, much like travel narratives or ethnographies. Students will produce a blog post featuring an interactive StoryMap made with a geocoded and “warped” 1569 map of the world by Gerard Mercator. This StoryMap should present geospatial data on one of the major late fifteenth- or sixteenth-century voyages of European exploration drawn from the Age of Exploration database.

Digital Tools Assignment #5: Networks and Knowledge
In this assignment, students will produce a blog post analyzing the communications network of an early modern correspondent, selected from the database Early Modern Letters online. This post will include a visualization of their letter writer’s communications network using Palladio, a network analysis and data visualization tool produced by the Stanford Humanities + Design Lab. The blog post should also contain a description and historical contextualization of at least three of the correspondent’s letters, accessed through Early Modern Letters Online.

Final Evaluative Exercise #

In lieu of a final exam, in the final week of the semester, you will write a 5- to 7-page reflection paper responding to the following question: How has the advent of digital communications technologies changed the way historians approach their work? Do you think the digital revolution is more or less significant than previous communications revolutions examined in this class? Papers should not summarize the course curriculum but will instead advance a clear and specific historical argument with a thesis statement supported by evidence from our course readings, both primary and secondary.

Grading Philosophy and Policy #

I believe that all students should be rewarded for hard work and demonstrated progress. If you come to class regularly and show me that you are doing your best, I will take that into account when grading papers and exams. Effort will always be rewarded. Your grades reflect the degree to which you show competency in the content and skills taught in this class, ideally in a way that will let you maintain them beyond this semester. A ‘C’ means you have demonstrated the skills and knowledge relevant to a particular assignment, but at a minimum level of proficiency. ‘B’s correspond to ‘good’ – they indicate competence in all areas relevant to the assignment. An ‘A’ means ‘excellent’: it doesn’t just mean you have demonstrated the relevant skills and knowledge, but that you have done so with extra attention and polish, in a manner superior to the majority of students.

If you have a concern about a grade on a particular assignment or would like clarification of feedback, please contact me within two weeks of receiving that grade. For concerns about a final grade, consult the university’s policy for grade appeals here: https://tcu.codes/policies/academic-affairs/grade-appeal/.

If you are concerned about maintaining a certain GPA for scholarship or other reasons, please remember that your performance in college is your responsibility, not mine. No extra credit will be offered. Your final grade will be determined by the extent to which your work fulfills the criteria established in the assignment descriptions. If you have concerns about your progress, please meet with me to discuss the ways you can improve your skills while there is still time to make a difference. If you wait until the end of the semester, there is little either of us can do to improve your final grade.

Late Work #

All digital assignments are due by 11:59 pm on their due date and should be submitted via our course GitHub. The final paper is due by 11:59 pm on its due date and should be submitted via our course D2L site. Students will have a 12-hour grace period following these deadlines to submit their assignments with a 5-point penalty. Following that 12-hour grace period, assignments will lose a letter grade for every 24 hours late.

I will not accept late submissions of the final paper.

Participation, Engagement, & Attendance #

Your attendance and participation are critical components of this course. I will take attendance every day. You can receive full credit for participation by doing the reading before coming to class, coming to class on time, using your laptop or other technology for class-appropriate purposes, and engaging in our class discussions with your comments, questions, and ideas. The participation grades are broken down as follows:

• Students who attend class and participate will receive an A (100%).
• Students who attend class but do not participate will receive a B (85%).
• Students who are tardy and do participate in class will receive a B (85%).
• Students who are tardy and do not participate in class will receive a D (60%).
• Students who do not come to class get an F (0%).

You may miss class up to three classes for any reason. Your participation grade will be lowered by 1/3 of a letter grade (B+ to B, for example) for every unexcused/unverified absence beyond those three.

Because it is considered an infringement on student privacy for me to have access to student medical records, I cannot accept medical documentation to justify absences. If you have a legitimate reason for your absence and want to provide verification, please access the Absence Documentation Form here.

Excused Absences or Official University Absences are absences described in the Official University Absence Policy and include the following: Title IX related issues, military leave, holy days, and university related absences. As faculty we may not penalize students for these absences and must allow for the completion of assignments and exams within a reasonable amount of time after the absences. Beyond these, faculty retain all discretion for consideration of a student’s absence, including verified absences.

If you have concerns about your participation or are unsure how to effectively participate in during class, please reach out to me during office hours or by email.

Course Assignments and Final Grade #

Weighted Percentages #

Grading Scales #

Course Policies #

Technology Policies #

Students may use laptops in class to take notes and to reference readings during class discussion. However, if either the instructor or the TA notices that laptops are being used for purposes other than classwork, they reserve the right to ask the student to leave the classroom.

Artificial Intelligence #

This course is designed to teach historical content, critical thinking, and evidence-based writing. None of those skills can be learned if you outsource your course work to Artificial Intelligence (AI). Not to mention, AI tends to write like a corporate weirdo. If you are tempted to use AI to find sources, you should know that AI often hallucinates, inventing sources that cannot be verified or cited.

Therefore, Artificial intelligence (AI) and other unapproved assignment-help tools MAY NOT be used for course assignments except as explicitly authorized by the instructor. Specific examples of prohibited activities include, but are not limited to:

• Submitting all or any part of an assignment statement to an AI or unapproved assignment-help tool;
• Incorporating any part of an AI-generated response in an assignment;
• Using AI to brainstorm, formulate arguments, or template ideas for assignments;
• Using AI to summarize or contextualize source materials;
• Submitting your own work for this class to an AI or unapproved assignment-help tool for iteration or improvement.

If you are in doubt as to what constitutes AI, or whether an assignment-help tool is suitable for use in this class, then it is your responsibility to discuss your situation with the instructor.

Academic Misconduct #

In order to preserve the honor and integrity of the academic community, TCU expects students to maintain the highest standards of personal and scholarly conduct. You are responsible for understanding and complying with TCU’s Academic Conduct Policy (section 3.4 in the TCU Code of Student Conduct). Academic misconduct includes (but is not limited to) the submission of work that is not original; the presentation of ideas from any sources you do not credit; the use of direct quotations without quotation marks or without credit to the source; paraphrasing information and ideas from sources without credit to the source; failure to provide adequate citations for material obtained through electronic research; and submitting material created or written by someone else as your own, including purchased papers.

The penalties for academic misconduct may be a zero on the assignment in question, a recommendation to the dean that the student be immediately dropped from the course with an F, or a recommendation that the student be placed on probation, suspended, or expelled from the University.

Please note: TCU students are prohibited from sharing any portion of course materials (including videos, PowerPoint slides, assignments, or notes) with others, including on social media, without written permission from the course instructor. Accessing, copying, transporting (to another person or location), modifying, or destroying programs, records, or data belonging to TCU or another user without authorization, whether such data is in transit or storage, is prohibited.

TCU Online #

This course is supplemented by our site on D2L, available via my.tcu.edu. The syllabus, readings, grades, and feedback on assignments will be available at this site. This is also where I will post announcements or changes relevant to the course, if necessary. It is your responsibility to check the site regularly throughout the semester.

Communication and Course Etiquette #

Office hours are time dedicated to you that I hold available to meet without an appointment. You can ask questions about the course, or about life, or just drop by to say hi. I’ll be in the office (Reed 330) in person Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays after our class, as well as on Tuesday mornings from 10 am to noon. I can meet during those or other times by Zoom (let me know in advance if you want to use Zoom; I won’t automatically have it on). Outside of class and office hours, it’s easiest to reach me by email (m.reynolds1(at)tcu.edu).

All members of the class are expected to follow rules of common courtesy in all classroom discussions, email messages, and online discussion threads or chats. Be respectful of each other. Constructive disagreement is a good part of any discussion, but foul or threatening discourse will not be tolerated.

Course Schedule #

Please visit the Course Schedule page for the calendar of assignments this semester.