Course Description
From early film to twenty-first century gaming, innovators have turned to history for inspiration even as historians have looked to harness new media for their interpretive power. This course explores the interplay between spaces of the past and technologies used to present them.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will complete a final paper of 15 to 20 pages
that sets the semester’s work within the larger context of
their field of graduate study (e.g., preservation practice,
historiography, or geographical literature).
Athena Title
Public History and Technology
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
- After completing this course, students will come to a robust understanding of the tensions involved in the public history of slavery in the United States, will be able to assess the fluid relationship between media and historical sites, and will be able to analyze and assess the effectiveness of various technologies in presenting historical narratives. - They will demonstrate a firm grasp of these issues through class discussion, written analysis, and their final project, the composition of a proposal to a federal or other funding agency for a project touching on course themes.
Topical Outline
Course Topical Outline: Week 1: Introduction to Public and Digital History Week 2: Digital Mediation Week 3: Case Studies in Slavery and Public History Week 4: Early Film Week 5: Stone Mountain Week 6: Mobile Apps Week 7: Scholarly Monographs and the Web Week 8: Film Revisited Week 9: Domestic Museums Week 10: Film Industry Week 11: Granting Agencies Week 12: Video Game Interpretation Week 13: Digital Reconstructions Week 14: Digital Humanities and “Big Data” Week 15-16: Workshop papers Final exam
Syllabus