Methods in Digital History I

Schedule CLICK A WEEK FOR DETAIL ↓

DATE

TOPIC

DUE

Unit 1 · Foundations & Infrastructure

W01

Jan 7

Introductions & infrastructure setup

Syllabus overview and account setup.

GitHub setup

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Create a GitHub account and sign up for GitHub Education.
Install VS Code and Slack; join the course Slack.
Complete the Tech Fluency Survey (link on Canvas).

Due before class · GitHub username & Tech Fluency Survey

W02

Jan 12–14

Command line & GitHub

Navigating the shell; reproducible research.

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Mon · Jan 12 — The command line

Download iTerm2 (Mac) or Powerline (Windows).
Watch Command Line Overview.
Watch NixieDoesLinux, The Most Important Thing You’ll Learn in the Command Line.
Milligan & Baker, “Intro to the Bash Command Line,” Programming Historian 3 (2014).

Wed · Jan 14 — GitHub & reproducible research

The Turing Way Community et al., The Turing Way: A Handbook for Reproducible Data Science, v0.0.4, Zenodo, 2019.
Sandve et al., “Ten Simple Rules for Reproducible Computational Research,” PLOS Computational Biology 9(10).
Watch Free Code Camp, Git and GitHub.
Free Code Camp, Git and GitHub for Beginners.

W03

Jan 19–21

MLK Day & Tech Table

No class Mon (MLK Day); Tech Table Wed.

Terminal assgmt

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Mon · Jan 19 — No class (MLK Day)

Wed · Jan 21 — Tech Table: GitHub & command line

Due: questions to Slack by 10am · GitHub & Terminal assignment by 4pm.

Unit 2 · Programming Fundamentals (in R)

W04

Jan 26–28

Getting started in R

R in VS Code & Quarto; first Tech Table.

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Mon · Jan 26 — Introduction to R in VS Code & Quarto

Wickham & Grolemund, R for Data Science: chs. 2, 6, 7, 28–29.

Wed · Jan 28 — Tech Table

Due: GitHub questions to Slack by 10am · reasonable start on Worksheet 1.

W05

Feb 2–4

Data structures in R

Vectors, data frames, lists; Wed Tech Table.

Worksheet 1

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Mon · Feb 2 — Data structures in R (vectors, data frames, lists)

Rodrigues, “Objects, types & useful R functions to get started.”

Due before class: Worksheet 1 (R Basics), by 4pm to Canvas.

Wed · Feb 4 — Tech Table

Due: GitHub questions to Slack by 10am · reasonable start on Worksheet 2.

W06

Feb 9–11

Loops, conditionals & functions

Core computational patterns in R; Wed Tech Table.

Worksheet 2

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Mon · Feb 9 — Loops, conditionals & functions in R

Due before class: Worksheet 2 (Data Structures), by 4pm to Canvas.

Wed · Feb 11 — Tech Table

Due: GitHub questions to Slack by 10am · reasonable start on Worksheet 3.

W07

Feb 16–18

Information as data; tidy data

Tidy data principles & relational structure; Wed Tech Table.

Worksheet 3

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Mon · Feb 16 — Information as data, tidy data principles

Broman & Woo, “Data Organization in Spreadsheets,” American Statistician 72, no. 1 (2018).
Wickham, “Tidy Data,” Journal of Statistical Software 50, no. 10 (2014).
Watch Wickham, “Tidy Data and Tidy Tools,” NYC Open Statistical Computing Meetup, Dec. 2011.
Airtable, “What is a relational database?”

Due before class: Worksheet 3 (Loops, Conditionals & Functions), by 4pm to Canvas.

Wed · Feb 18 — Tech Table

Due: GitHub questions to Slack by 10am.

W08

Feb 23–25

Data manipulation with dplyr

The tidyverse approach to wrangling; Wed Tech Table.

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Mon · Feb 23 — Basic data manipulation with dplyr

Wickham & Grolemund, R for Data Science: chs. 5, 10, 16, 17.
The Tidy Tools Manifesto.
Welcome to the Tidyverse.
Introduction to dplyr.

Wed · Feb 25 — Tech Table

Due: GitHub questions to Slack by 10am · reasonable start on Worksheet 4.

W09

Mar 2–4

Advanced data manipulation

Joins, reshaping, and pipelines; Wed Tech Table.

Worksheet 4

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Mon · Mar 2 — Advanced data manipulation

Due before class: Worksheet 4 (Basic Data Manipulation), by 4pm to Canvas.

Wed · Mar 4 — Tech Table

Due: GitHub questions to Slack by 10am · reasonable start on Worksheet 5.

W10

Mar 9–11

AI coding tools & intro to Hugo

AI guardrails introduced; static site generators.

Worksheet 5

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Mon · Mar 9 — AI coding tools

Due before class: Worksheet 5 (Advanced Data Manipulation), by 4pm to Canvas. Guardrails for AI coding tools begin this week — see the AI use policy below.

Wed · Mar 11 — Hugo: static site generators, setup, structure, theming

Hugo docs: Introduction.
Hugo docs: Getting Started.

W11

Mar 16–18

Spring Break — no class

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W12

Mar 23–25

Building your Hugo site

Templating, content, deployment, polish; Wed Tech Table.

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Mon · Mar 23 — Hugo: templating, content, deployment, polish

Wed · Mar 25 — Tech Table: Hugo

Due: GitHub questions to Slack by 10am.

Unit 3 · Methods in Computational History

W13

Mar 30–Apr 1

Data visualization with ggplot

The grammar of graphics; Wed Tech Table.

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Mon · Mar 30 — Data visualization with ggplot & the grammar of graphics

Wickham & Grolemund, R for Data Science: chs. 1 & 3.
Healy, Data Visualization: chs. 1, 3, 4.
Look at the R Graph Gallery and Top 50 ggplot2 Visualizations.

Wed · Apr 1 — Tech Table

Due: GitHub questions to Slack by 10am · reasonable start on Worksheet 6.

W14

Apr 6–8

Text analysis I

Tokenization, frequency & TF-IDF; Wed Tech Table.

Worksheet 6

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Mon · Apr 6 — Text analysis I: tokenization, stop words, word frequency, TF-IDF

Review docs for quanteda.
Review docs for cleanNLP.

Due before class: Worksheet 6 (Data Visualization), by 4pm to Canvas.

Wed · Apr 8 — Tech Table

Due: GitHub questions to Slack by 10am · reasonable start on Worksheet 7.

W15

Apr 13–15

Text analysis II — topic modeling

Unsupervised models & interpretation; Wed Tech Table.

Worksheet 7

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Mon · Apr 13 — Topic modeling

Explore Quiet Transformations and the related project Signs@40: Feminist Scholarship through Four Decades.
Antoniak, “Topic Modeling for the People.”
Review the documentation for topicmodels by Grün & Hornik.

Due before class: Worksheet 7 (Text Analysis), by 4pm to Canvas.

Wed · Apr 15 — Tech Table

Due: GitHub questions to Slack by 10am · reasonable start on Worksheet 8 (Topic Modeling).

W16

Apr 20–22

Maps & geographic data in R

Spatial data, projections, leaflet; Wed Tech Table.

Worksheet 8

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Mon · Apr 20 — Maps & geographic data in R

Review docs for leaflet (and the leaflet website).
Review docs for sf.
Review docs for tigris.

Due before class: Worksheet 8 (Topic Modeling), by 4pm to Canvas.

Wed · Apr 22 — Tech Table

Due: GitHub questions to Slack by 10am · reasonable start on Worksheet 9 (Mapping).

FIN

Finals

Final project presentations

Portfolio, proposal & mapping due.

3 deliverables

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Present your dataset proposal and portfolio to the seminar.

Due · Hugo portfolio · Dataset proposal · Worksheet 9 · Mapping

Policies & Procedures

Artificial intelligence (AI) use ›

All students in the Digital History Ph.D. program are bound by the program’s AI Use Policy (handbook, p. 10); this course aligns with it. In Weeks 1–9, AI tools are strictly prohibited — you must develop foundational computational-thinking skills without AI assistance. Any use before the instructor grants permission results in automatic failure of the assignment and is reported as an academic-integrity violation.

Beginning Week 10, the instructor introduces guardrails. You may then use AI tools to understand code structure, debug, and improve technical skills — but you must understand every line you submit, verify accuracy, and document your AI use in your weekly coding log. AI use is forbidden for historical analysis, interpretation, or writing. Always be the historian in the loop.

Late work ›

Because of the technical, scaffolded nature of this course, keeping up with worksheets is essential — miss one and the next is much harder. Unless otherwise stated, assignments are due on the listed date; late work loses 10% per day and is not accepted more than 7 days late.

Academic integrity ›

As members of the Clemson community we share a commitment to truthfulness, honor, and responsibility, and do not tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing in any form. See the Graduate Academic Integrity Policy and the current Clemson Graduate Handbook.

Student accessibility services ›

Students who experience a barrier to full access should let me know and contact Student Accessibility Services (864-656-6848, Suite 239, Academic Success Center) as early as possible. Send accommodation letters through your AIM portal early each semester.

Conduct, diversity & emergency preparedness ›

To learn, we must be open to views different from our own. Please honor the uniqueness of your classmates and refrain from personal attacks. Clemson is committed to equal opportunity and does not discriminate, including the prohibitions mandated by Title IX.

Emergency procedures are posted in all buildings. Sign up for emergency alerts, download the Rave Guardian app, and review guidance from the Clemson Police Department.