Author: admin

As we go through the semester, our classroom work will become more focused the research and application of digital projects. Here are some sample topics to consider, from which you may select with permission. This list is focused on topics related to Dominica, but you may select other more broad Caribbean-focused topics or adapt one of the listed topics to include the Caribbean in general.

1. Indigenous life in the colonial 20th Century (1900-1978)
2. Rise and Fall of Agriculture in Dominica: 1950-2000
3. My Grandmother and Me: : Extended Families’ role in Dominican society
4. Carnival and Costuming: A national history
5. Politics and Civil Discourse in the Eugenia Era
6. Live Long in Dominica: a history of centenarians
7. Exploring Dominica’s fictional worlds: popular writing in Dominica, 1930-1975
8. My Diaspora: tracing Dominican life around the world in the 20th Century
9. Wife Notice: Pre-independence marriage culture
10. From Town to Country: suburban development in Dominica post-Independence

Every Sunday by 9 p.m., you are required to enter a 300-500 word blog post (not more than 500 words) to your Tumblr site that reflects on one or more of the week’s readings. The blog post is meant to be free-form and simply a reflection of your understanding of the ideas shaping historical research and the use of technology in making this research possible. You should provide, by way of summary, reflection and/or analysis some insight into your understanding of the topics and of your own development as a researcher and historian of the project you are building.

Initially, you should be considering what the reading helps you learn about the relationship between technology and human culture, or with the field of study that is digital humanities. Your blog posts should not simply summarize the readings but should respond to the authors’ main ideas and conclusions. You should be answering the following question, directly or implicitly, in your posts: What does the reading(s) offer to help you better understand your project? 

You will have a reading of focus for each week’s blog post, since there are many posted for each week. However, your blog post may be a reflection on a combination of the readings and how they relate to each other and to your project. You are being evaluated on how well you are able to synthesize and communicate the information from the readings, while offering some critical response of your own based on our guided class discussions. Focus on specific terms or tools offered in the readings may be a good point of entry.

A rubric for grading the blog exercise can be found here.