ENGL 451B:
Reading Literature with Computers

Meeting Times

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 10:00 - 10:50 in HCC 329

Instructor

Dr. Zach Whalen. Check my website for contact information, availability, and to schedule a meeting. 

📜 Goals for this Course

By completing this class, students will gain experience in applying digital tools to the questions and problems of literary studies. This seminar is an exploration of emergent methodologies in literature studies that take advantage of computational methods to pursue analysis and critique of literature. These so-called "distant reading" techniques have found many useful applications, but need to be interrogated for their latent assumptions and priorities. This class is as much about "teaching the controversy" as it is testing and demonstrating various methodologies like topic modeling, stylometrics, and various other data-driven approaches.

🧠 Learning Outcomes

Digital Intensive

• • Students will successfully locate and critically evaluate information using the Internet, library databases, and/or other digital tools.
  • Students will use digital tools to safely, ethically, and effectively produce and exchange information and ideas.
  • Students will creatively adapt to emerging and evolving technology.

Speaking Intensive

• • Students will understand and be able to explain the conventions and expectations of oral communication as practiced within the discipline of the course taken.

• • Students will apply theories and strategies for crafting messages (verbal, nonverbal, and visual) for particular audiences and purposes.

• • Students will be able to craft oral messages after a conscious process in which various options are reviewed and will be able to explain and support their choices.

• • Students will be able to metacommunicate about their own communication patterns.

English Seminar

• • Students will pursue intensive study of primary and secondary material, as appropriate to the discipline, in a focused and directed way.
  • Students will demonstrate competence in advanced-level research, and the ability to take an independent role in the presentation of that research, as appropriate to the discipline.
  • Students will demonstrate independent critical thinking skills measured in a variety of ways, including written work and oral presentations, one of which will be a capstone paper, portfolio, or project reflecting substantial, prolonged work on the seminar topic.
  • Students will achieve some mastery in the scholarly debates that inform the topic and contribute to that debate in a meaningful way.

English Major

• • Students will read literary texts with the methods and skills of a literary scholar by
    • Demonstrating the ability to work closely with the language of the text.
    • Showing awareness of literary aspects of the text.
    • Employing assignment-appropriate critical methodologies.
  • Students will write with the methods and skills of a 21st-century scholar by
    • Employing assignment-appropriate critical methodologies.
    • Using genre-appropriate writing strategies and methodologies.
    • Crafting coherent, meaningful texts that engage complex ideas or issues.
    • Editing writing following conventions of grammar, punctuation, sentence construction, usage, and proper documentation of sources.

📚 Required Books

🎯 Assignments

Participation

Because this class is a seminar, I have higher expectations for your participation than might be the case for another class. We are a relatively small group, so there is a good chance for us to get to know each other. Moreover, because the material we cover in this seminar can be difficult (emotionally or technically), we can support each other's learning by committing to engaging with each other in a community. That sense of engagement is also key to achieving the goals and student learning outcomes listed above. 

To put it more specifically, you should commit to completing one or all of the following for each day of class:

• • Prepare by reading/competing the assigned material. That means taking notes, and coming to class ready with questions and ideas to discuss. 
  • Share relevant memes in Discord. 
  • Contribute to our collaborative notes Google Doc.

Weekly Journals

Students should keep a journal collecting notes and reflecting on progress through the course. Each Friday, submit a journal entry responding to the ideas of that week. I recommend posting these as blog entries, but other methods are acceptable. If you would like help deciding if and how to post these, please schedule an appointment to discuss your options.

Voyant Tool Presentation

The website, Voyant-Tools.org, is a dashboard presenting several tools useful for computational text analysis. After reading Beloved, each student will be assigned a specific tool in Voyant and deliver a brief presentation explaining that tool and interpreting what it yields from Beloved.

Dataset Deep Dive

Computers are really number crunchers, so in order for them to do anything productive with text, that text must first be transformed into data. In this assignment, students will find some work of scholarly analysis or data journalism focusing on literature and then deliver a brief presentation on the dataset(s) at the core of that analysis.

Pythonic Paraphrase

Many of the software tools used to analyze literature work well with no coding knowledge required to operate. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the operations of those programs, and a reasonable understanding can be accomplished by build something yourself. In this project, students will write their own Python code to accomplish something similar to one of the tools or analyses available in Voyant or that is used in some other example of "distant reading" that we encounter over the course of the semester.

Seminar Paper (or Project)

The major project of this semester will be a lengthy, in-depth application of software to defend or explore a thesis related to a significant literary question. This project may take the form of a traditional essay supported with data-based evidence, or it may be a website with interactive and/or visual explanations of quantitative literary data. Whatever form it takes, it must involve software or programming in some way.

Students will first complete an abstract explaining their idea. At the end of the semester, students will present condensed versions of their findings at the ENLI Department's annual Kemp Symposium.

🏆 Grading

For this class, all assignments are worth "0 out of 0 points," and they are, therefore, not weighted according to their relative importance. All assigned projects and tasks are important, and completing these projects is intended to help you advance your learning toward completing the goals and learning outcomes assigned for this course.

For all assignments turned in via Canvas, I will assign a grade of ✓ if all requirements have been meet, or a ✓- if some aspect of the assignment was incomplete or missing, and a ✓+ if the assignment goes well above and beyond the expectations set for that assignment.

I may occasionally leave comments on assignments, but the primary mechanism for my feedback will be in one-on-one video conferences discussing your work. 

A final self-evaluation will determine your overall grade for the class, and a mid-term self-evaluation will let you practice this method of grade determination.

On March 11, I will submit a mid-term deficiency report for students who fail to submit a mid-term self evaluation or who have missed a significant number of classes.

🗓️ General Schedule

Week 1: Introductions, Definitions, and Expectations

Weeks 2 - 4: Reading Toni Morrison's Beloved

Week 5: Reading through Beloved

Weeks 6 - 7: Visualization

Weeks 9 - 10: Interpreting Stylistics (Blatt)

Weeks 11 - 12: Working with Python

Weeks 13 - 15: Completing Final Projects.

📋 Policies and Expectations

Online Community

You have a great deal of freedom in this class, but freedom undirected can be intimidating, leading you to make overly-cautious choices. Instead, we'll work to build a community of support and trust so that by the time you create your big project you'll feel emboldened to take some bigger risks and try something different.

We'll use Canvas for the logistics of the class, and Discord for day to day conversation and activity. Make sure you join our Discord server with the invitation link I sent via email. We'll also use Google Drive, so make sure you have a Google account.

Once we know more about the daily schedule for this class, each student will be assigned to a specific cohort of fellow students that will coordinate and communicate together for every peer-related assignment or activity this semester.

Technology in the classroom

You are welcome to use computers during class, including tablets, smartphones, whatever — so long as what you're doing isn't distracting someone else. I simply ask you to be responsible. Proper uses may include taking notes, reviewing the reading material, looking up something related, or participating in a constructive backchannel conversation on Discord. Improper uses may include watching movies and working on homework assignments for other classes.

Decorum

Students are expected to treat the instructor and fellow students with the appropriate degree of respect, both in class and in online discussions. Communication, either in person or through electronic media, that is deemed abusive, threatening, or harassing in nature will not be tolerated.

Content Warning

Through the course of this semester, we'll look at a wide array of content that may include literature, film, comics, television, memes, and any manner of things that people post on the Internet. It is possible that some of this material may be disturbing, offensive, or upsetting, possibly including subject matter or themes related to race, gender, sexuality or violence. For some of these conversations to take place, it is important that we grapple with these uncomfortable things, but we will always treat all such material with appropriate maturity and as much ethical clarity as possible. That said, if you find for some reason that discussing a particular text is too upsetting or traumatic, it is always OK to excuse yourself from that discussion. Just let me know.

Status of Student Work

Much of the work you'll be creating for this class has the potential to be shared online, ideally on your domain. Some of the work may also be shared with others in the class via a closed system like Discord or Google Drive. Wherever possible, we will discuss and think carefully about the divide between public and private sharing and when to post what, where. All grades and feedback will be in Canvas or some other private medium only accessible by you and me.

COVID-19

All students are expected to adhere to the policies and expectations of the University to mitigate risk and support the health and safety of the UMW community, including refraining from attending class if experiencing symptoms. A comprehensive set of the current policies and expectations can be found at the COVID-19 information page. This includes the requirement that all unvaccinated employees, students and visitors are required to wear masks inside any university building and are strongly encouraged to do so when outside in group settings.   

UMW policy ALSO stipulates that all employees, students, and visitors, regardless of vaccination or booster status, must wear masks indoors in public spaces (which includes all classrooms, laboratories, meeting spaces, foyers and hallways, and auditoriums) until further notice. The use of KN-95 masks or equivalent is highly encouraged. Changes to this requirement will be communicated to the campus community by the COVID-19 Director and updated at the university’s COVID-19 information page. 

No food is permitted in classrooms and other instructional areas; drinks permitted in closed containers only and not in areas where expressly prohibited.

Failure to comply with UMW policies and expectations will result in disciplinary action consistent with the Student Code of Conduct. 

Attendance

This is a discussion-oriented class, so I anticipate that students will come to class well-prepared to contribute their ideas to our collective understanding of texts and the issues and questions surrounding them. I will record attendance every day we meet both for monitoring participation and for contact-tracing purposes should there be any positive COVID tests. Missing the occasional class is inevitable, and I take for granted that many students may at times need to isolate for reasons related to COVID or other illnesses.

When this happens, I encourage you to check in via Discord and review the collaborative notes document to see what you've missed. I also strongly encourage you to schedule a meeting with me.

Consistent attendance is important for success in this class, and while there is no automatic grade penalty for missing class (see the section on grading), my experience has been that absences are inversely proportional to successful grades. Therefore, when you have to miss even one class, please commit yourself to the effort of catching up as soon as possible.

Recording

To ensure the free and open discussion of ideas, students may not record classroom lectures, discussion and/or activities without the advance written permission of the instructor, and any such recording properly approved in advance can only be used by students in the class. Students who wish to record lectures or class activities for study purposes must inform the faculty member first. Students with approved accommodations from the Office of Disability Resources permitting the recording of class meetings must present the accommodation letter to the instructor in advance of any recording being done. On any days when classes will be recorded, the instructor will notify all students in advance. Distribution or sale of class recordings is prohibited without the written permission of the instructor and other students who are recorded. Distribution without permission is a violation of educational privacy law. This policy is consistent with UMW’s Policy on Recording Class and Distribution of Course Materials.

Unless otherwise noted, classes conducted on Zoom will be recorded, and those recordings will be available in Canvas. Like other recordings, those transcripts and videos may not be shared beyond the class without express permission from the instructor and all students participating.

Accessibility

The Office of Disability Resources has been designated by the university as the primary office to guide, counsel, and assist students with disabilities. If you receive services through the Office of Disability Resources and require accommodations for this class, please provide me a copy of your accommodation letter via email or during a meeting. I encourage you to follow-up with me about your accommodations and needs within this class. I will hold any information you share with me in the strictest confidence unless you give me permission to do otherwise.

If you have not made contact with the Office of Disability Resources and have reasonable accommodation needs, their office is located in Seacobeck 005, phone number is (540) 654-1266 and email is odr@umw.edu.  The office will require appropriate documentation of disability.

Title IX Statement

University of Mary Washington faculty are committed to supporting students and upholding the University’s Policy on Sexual and Gender Based Harassment and Other Forms of Interpersonal Violence. Under Title IX and this Policy, discrimination based upon sex or gender is prohibited. If you experience an incident of sex or gender based discrimination, we encourage you to report it. While you may talk to me, understand that as a “Responsible Employee” of the University, I MUST report to UMW’s Title IX Coordinator what you share.  If you wish to speak to someone confidentially, please contact the below confidential resources.  They can connect you with support services and help you explore your options. You may also seek assistance from UMW’s Title IX Coordinator.  Please visit http://diversity.umw.edu/title-ix/ to view UMW’s Policy on Sexual and Gender Based Harassment and Other Forms of Interpersonal Violence and to find further information on support and resources. 

Stefanie Lucas-Waverly, M.S. 
Title IX Coordinator
Fairfax House
1301 College Ave.
Fredericksburg, VA 22401

Phone: 540-654-5656
E-mail: slucaswa@umw.edu

Website: http://diversity.umw.edu/title-ix/

Confidential Resources

On-Campus

Talley Center for Counseling Services, Lee Hall 106, 540-654-1053

Student Health Center, Lee Hall 112, 540-654-1040

Off-Campus

Empowerhouse, 24-hr hotline: 540-373-9373

Rappahannock Council Against Sexual Assault (RCASA), 24-hr hotline: 540-371-1666

Academic Dishonesty

The UMW Honor System applies to all work for our course. I may authorize specific assignments as collaborative, but all other work must be your own, as per Article 1, Sections 1 and 2 of the University of Mary Washington Student Honor Code. Academic dishonesty typically boils down to taking credit for someone else’s work, and whether you’ve done so accidentally or maliciously, it’s still an honor violation. Some examples include:

• • Including a quote in a blog post without identifying the source of that quote.
  • Using an image in a blog post without permission from its copyright holder.
  • Asking another student to “edit” your paper for you.
  • Creating a blog entry or essay that is mostly quotes, even properly attributed quotes.
  • Copying and pasting code snippets without crediting the source