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Prof. Katherine Rowe‘s blue-haired avatar was flying across a grassy landscape to a virtual three-dimensional re-creation of the Globe Theater, where some students from her introductory Shakespeare class at Bryn Mawr College had already gathered online. Their assignment was to create characters on the Web site Theatron3 and use them to block scenes from the gory revenge tragedy ―Titus Andronicus," to see how setting can heighten the drama. ―I‘ve done this class before in a theater and a lecture hall, but it doesn‘t work as well," Ms. Rowe said, explaining that it was difficult for students to imagine what it would be like to put on a production in the 16th-century Globe, a circular open-air theater without electric lights, microphones and a curtain.

Jennifer Cook, a senior, used her laptop to move a black-clad avatar center stage. She and the other half-dozen students agreed that in ―Titus," the rape, murders and final banquet — when the Queen unknowingly eats the remains of her two children — should all take place in the same spot. ―Every time someone is in that space," Ms. Cook said, ―the audience is going to say, "Uh oh, you don"t want to be there.‘ "

Students like Ms. Cook are among the first generation of undergraduates at dozens of colleges to take humanities courses — even Shakespeare — that are deeply influenced by a new array of powerful digital tools and vast online archives. Ms. Rowe‘s students, who have occasionally met with her on the virtual Globe stage while wearing pajamas in their dorm rooms, are enthusiastic about the technology.

At the University of Virginia, history undergraduates have produced a digital visualization of the college‘s first library collection, allowing them to consider what the selection of books says about how knowledge was classified in the early 18th century. At Hamilton College, students can explore a virtual re-creation of the South African township of Soweto during the 1976 student uprisings, or sign up for ―e-black studies" to examine how cyberspace reflects and shapes the portrayal of minorities.

Many teachers and administrators are only beginning to figure out the contours of this emerging field of digital humanities, and how it should be taught. In the classroom, however, digitally savvy undergraduates are not just ready to adapt to the tools but also to explore how new media may alter the very process of reading, interpretation and analysis. ―There‘s a very exciting generation gap in the classroom," said Ms. Rowe, who developed the digital components of her Shakespeare course with a graduate student who now works at Google. ―Students are fluent in new media, and the faculty bring sophisticated knowledge of a subject. It‘s a gap that won‘t last more than a decade. In 10 years these students will be my colleagues, but now it presents unusual learning opportunities." As Ms. Cook said, ―The Internet is less foreign to me than a Shakespeare play written 500 years ago."

Bryn Mawr‘s unusually close partnership with Haverford College and Swarthmore College has enabled the three institutions to pool their resources, students and faculty. In November students from all three participated in the first Digital Humanities Conference for Undergraduates.

Jen Rajchel, one of the conference organizers, is the first undergraduate at Bryn Mawr to have a digital senior thesis accepted by the English department: a Web site and archive on the American poet Marianne Moore, who attended the college nearly a century ago. Presenting a Moore poem on the Web site while simultaneously displaying commentary in different windows next to the text (as opposed to listing them in a paper) more accurately reflects the work‘s multiple meanings, according to Ms. Rajchel. After all, she argued in the thesis, Moore was acutely aware of her audience and made subtle alterations in her poems for different publications — changes that are more easily illustrated by displaying the various versions. The Web presentation of Moore‘s poetry also allows readers to add comments and talk to one another, which Ms. Rajchel believes matches the poet‘s interest in opening a dialogue with her readers.

Particularly inspiring to Ms. Rajchel is that her work doesn‘t disappear after being deposited in a professor‘s in box. The site, which includes scans of original documents from Bryn Mawr‘s library, was (and remains) viewable. ―It really can go outside of the classroom," she said, adding that an established Marianne Moore scholar at another university had left a comment.

Doing research that lives outside the classroom is also what drew Anna Levine, a junior at Swarthmore, to digital humanities. Over the summer and after class, she and Richard Li, a senior at Swarthmore, worked with Rachel Buurma, an assistant professor of literature there, to develop the Early Novels Database for the University of Pennsylvania‘s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which enables users to search more thoroughly through fiction published between 1660 and 1830. ―I am the one doing all the grunt work," Ms. Levine said of her tasks, which largely involve entering details about a novel into the database. ―But one of the great things is as an undergraduate, it really enables me to participate in a scholarly community."

In a Swarthmore lounge where Ms. Buurma‘s weekly research seminar on Victorian literature and culture meets, Ms. Levine and a handful of other students recently settled into a cozy circle on stuffed chairs and couches. As part of their class work, they have been helping to correct the transcribed online versions of Household Words and All the Year Round, two 19th- century periodicals in which Charles Dickens initially published some novels, including ―Great Expectations," in serial form. On a square coffee table sat a short stack of original issues of the magazine that a librarian had brought from the college‘s collection to show the class. Students discussed how the experience of reading differs, depending on whether the text is presented in discrete segments, surrounded by advertisements or in a leather binding; whether you are working in an archive, editing online or reading for pleasure.

Those skeptical of the digital humanities worry that the emphasis on data analysis will distract students from delving deeply into the heart and soul of literary texts. But Ms. Buurma contends that these undergraduates are in fact reading quite closely.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/March 21, 2011.

Text

Prof. Katherine Rowe‘s blue-haired avatar was flying across a grassy landscape to a virtual three-dimensional re-creation of the Globe Theater, where some students from her introductory Shakespeare class at Bryn Mawr College had already gathered online. Their assignment was to create characters on the Web site Theatron3 and use them to block scenes from the gory revenge tragedy ―Titus Andronicus," to see how setting can heighten the drama. ―I‘ve done this class before in a theater and a lecture hall, but it doesn‘t work as well," Ms. Rowe said, explaining that it was difficult for students to imagine what it would be like to put on a production in the 16th-century Globe, a circular open-air theater without electric lights, microphones and a curtain.

Jennifer Cook, a senior, used her laptop to move a black-clad avatar center stage. She and the other half-dozen students agreed that in ―Titus," the rape, murders and final banquet — when the Queen unknowingly eats the remains of her two children — should all take place in the same spot. ―Every time someone is in that space," Ms. Cook said, ―the audience is going to say, "Uh oh, you don"t want to be there.‘ "

Students like Ms. Cook are among the first generation of undergraduates at dozens of colleges to take humanities courses — even Shakespeare — that are deeply influenced by a new array of powerful digital tools and vast online archives. Ms. Rowe‘s students, who have occasionally met with her on the virtual Globe stage while wearing pajamas in their dorm rooms, are enthusiastic about the technology.

At the University of Virginia, history undergraduates have produced a digital visualization of the college‘s first library collection, allowing them to consider what the selection of books says about how knowledge was classified in the early 18th century. At Hamilton College, students can explore a virtual re-creation of the South African township of Soweto during the 1976 student uprisings, or sign up for ―e-black studies" to examine how cyberspace reflects and shapes the portrayal of minorities.

Many teachers and administrators are only beginning to figure out the contours of this emerging field of digital humanities, and how it should be taught. In the classroom, however, digitally savvy undergraduates are not just ready to adapt to the tools but also to explore how new media may alter the very process of reading, interpretation and analysis. ―There‘s a very exciting generation gap in the classroom," said Ms. Rowe, who developed the digital components of her Shakespeare course with a graduate student who now works at Google. ―Students are fluent in new media, and the faculty bring sophisticated knowledge of a subject. It‘s a gap that won‘t last more than a decade. In 10 years these students will be my colleagues, but now it presents unusual learning opportunities." As Ms. Cook said, ―The Internet is less foreign to me than a Shakespeare play written 500 years ago."

Bryn Mawr‘s unusually close partnership with Haverford College and Swarthmore College has enabled the three institutions to pool their resources, students and faculty. In November students from all three participated in the first Digital Humanities Conference for Undergraduates.

Jen Rajchel, one of the conference organizers, is the first undergraduate at Bryn Mawr to have a digital senior thesis accepted by the English department: a Web site and archive on the American poet Marianne Moore, who attended the college nearly a century ago. Presenting a Moore poem on the Web site while simultaneously displaying commentary in different windows next to the text (as opposed to listing them in a paper) more accurately reflects the work‘s multiple meanings, according to Ms. Rajchel. After all, she argued in the thesis, Moore was acutely aware of her audience and made subtle alterations in her poems for different publications — changes that are more easily illustrated by displaying the various versions. The Web presentation of Moore‘s poetry also allows readers to add comments and talk to one another, which Ms. Rajchel believes matches the poet‘s interest in opening a dialogue with her readers.

Particularly inspiring to Ms. Rajchel is that her work doesn‘t disappear after being deposited in a professor‘s in box. The site, which includes scans of original documents from Bryn Mawr‘s library, was (and remains) viewable. ―It really can go outside of the classroom," she said, adding that an established Marianne Moore scholar at another university had left a comment.

Doing research that lives outside the classroom is also what drew Anna Levine, a junior at Swarthmore, to digital humanities. Over the summer and after class, she and Richard Li, a senior at Swarthmore, worked with Rachel Buurma, an assistant professor of literature there, to develop the Early Novels Database for the University of Pennsylvania‘s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which enables users to search more thoroughly through fiction published between 1660 and 1830. ―I am the one doing all the grunt work," Ms. Levine said of her tasks, which largely involve entering details about a novel into the database. ―But one of the great things is as an undergraduate, it really enables me to participate in a scholarly community."

In a Swarthmore lounge where Ms. Buurma‘s weekly research seminar on Victorian literature and culture meets, Ms. Levine and a handful of other students recently settled into a cozy circle on stuffed chairs and couches. As part of their class work, they have been helping to correct the transcribed online versions of Household Words and All the Year Round, two 19th- century periodicals in which Charles Dickens initially published some novels, including ―Great Expectations," in serial form. On a square coffee table sat a short stack of original issues of the magazine that a librarian had brought from the college‘s collection to show the class. Students discussed how the experience of reading differs, depending on whether the text is presented in discrete segments, surrounded by advertisements or in a leather binding; whether you are working in an archive, editing online or reading for pleasure.

Those skeptical of the digital humanities worry that the emphasis on data analysis will distract students from delving deeply into the heart and soul of literary texts. But Ms. Buurma contends that these undergraduates are in fact reading quite closely.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/March 21, 2011.

Text

Prof. Katherine Rowe‘s blue-haired avatar was flying across a grassy landscape to a virtual three-dimensional re-creation of the Globe Theater, where some students from her introductory Shakespeare class at Bryn Mawr College had already gathered online. Their assignment was to create characters on the Web site Theatron3 and use them to block scenes from the gory revenge tragedy ―Titus Andronicus," to see how setting can heighten the drama. ―I‘ve done this class before in a theater and a lecture hall, but it doesn‘t work as well," Ms. Rowe said, explaining that it was difficult for students to imagine what it would be like to put on a production in the 16th-century Globe, a circular open-air theater without electric lights, microphones and a curtain.

Jennifer Cook, a senior, used her laptop to move a black-clad avatar center stage. She and the other half-dozen students agreed that in ―Titus," the rape, murders and final banquet — when the Queen unknowingly eats the remains of her two children — should all take place in the same spot. ―Every time someone is in that space," Ms. Cook said, ―the audience is going to say, "Uh oh, you don"t want to be there.‘ "

Students like Ms. Cook are among the first generation of undergraduates at dozens of colleges to take humanities courses — even Shakespeare — that are deeply influenced by a new array of powerful digital tools and vast online archives. Ms. Rowe‘s students, who have occasionally met with her on the virtual Globe stage while wearing pajamas in their dorm rooms, are enthusiastic about the technology.

At the University of Virginia, history undergraduates have produced a digital visualization of the college‘s first library collection, allowing them to consider what the selection of books says about how knowledge was classified in the early 18th century. At Hamilton College, students can explore a virtual re-creation of the South African township of Soweto during the 1976 student uprisings, or sign up for ―e-black studies" to examine how cyberspace reflects and shapes the portrayal of minorities.

Many teachers and administrators are only beginning to figure out the contours of this emerging field of digital humanities, and how it should be taught. In the classroom, however, digitally savvy undergraduates are not just ready to adapt to the tools but also to explore how new media may alter the very process of reading, interpretation and analysis. ―There‘s a very exciting generation gap in the classroom," said Ms. Rowe, who developed the digital components of her Shakespeare course with a graduate student who now works at Google. ―Students are fluent in new media, and the faculty bring sophisticated knowledge of a subject. It‘s a gap that won‘t last more than a decade. In 10 years these students will be my colleagues, but now it presents unusual learning opportunities." As Ms. Cook said, ―The Internet is less foreign to me than a Shakespeare play written 500 years ago."

Bryn Mawr‘s unusually close partnership with Haverford College and Swarthmore College has enabled the three institutions to pool their resources, students and faculty. In November students from all three participated in the first Digital Humanities Conference for Undergraduates.

Jen Rajchel, one of the conference organizers, is the first undergraduate at Bryn Mawr to have a digital senior thesis accepted by the English department: a Web site and archive on the American poet Marianne Moore, who attended the college nearly a century ago. Presenting a Moore poem on the Web site while simultaneously displaying commentary in different windows next to the text (as opposed to listing them in a paper) more accurately reflects the work‘s multiple meanings, according to Ms. Rajchel. After all, she argued in the thesis, Moore was acutely aware of her audience and made subtle alterations in her poems for different publications — changes that are more easily illustrated by displaying the various versions. The Web presentation of Moore‘s poetry also allows readers to add comments and talk to one another, which Ms. Rajchel believes matches the poet‘s interest in opening a dialogue with her readers.

Particularly inspiring to Ms. Rajchel is that her work doesn‘t disappear after being deposited in a professor‘s in box. The site, which includes scans of original documents from Bryn Mawr‘s library, was (and remains) viewable. ―It really can go outside of the classroom," she said, adding that an established Marianne Moore scholar at another university had left a comment.

Doing research that lives outside the classroom is also what drew Anna Levine, a junior at Swarthmore, to digital humanities. Over the summer and after class, she and Richard Li, a senior at Swarthmore, worked with Rachel Buurma, an assistant professor of literature there, to develop the Early Novels Database for the University of Pennsylvania‘s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which enables users to search more thoroughly through fiction published between 1660 and 1830. ―I am the one doing all the grunt work," Ms. Levine said of her tasks, which largely involve entering details about a novel into the database. ―But one of the great things is as an undergraduate, it really enables me to participate in a scholarly community."

In a Swarthmore lounge where Ms. Buurma‘s weekly research seminar on Victorian literature and culture meets, Ms. Levine and a handful of other students recently settled into a cozy circle on stuffed chairs and couches. As part of their class work, they have been helping to correct the transcribed online versions of Household Words and All the Year Round, two 19th- century periodicals in which Charles Dickens initially published some novels, including ―Great Expectations," in serial form. On a square coffee table sat a short stack of original issues of the magazine that a librarian had brought from the college‘s collection to show the class. Students discussed how the experience of reading differs, depending on whether the text is presented in discrete segments, surrounded by advertisements or in a leather binding; whether you are working in an archive, editing online or reading for pleasure.

Those skeptical of the digital humanities worry that the emphasis on data analysis will distract students from delving deeply into the heart and soul of literary texts. But Ms. Buurma contends that these undergraduates are in fact reading quite closely.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/March 21, 2011.