Bootcamps

Please remember that fellowships are available, on a competetive basis, to help campers attend bootcamps. If you need funding to attend THATCamp LAC, please apply for a bootcamp fellowship. This requires a separate application.

Bootcamp 1: Integrating Digital Humanities Projects into the Undergraduate Curriculum

Presenters:

Digital methods of analysis exert growing influence on the practice of many disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, yet students majoring in non-science disciplines often have little exposure to computational thinking and working with computer code. At the same time, in the curriculum, the Digital Humanities promises significant learning benefits for undergraduates, who need a measure of digital literacy to function well as citizens in the twenty-first century. This bootcamp will present strategies for effectively integrating digital projects into undergraduate courses. By examining effective cases of assignments linked to digital projects, participants will consider how to make room for such assignments in a syllabus, how to tie digital projects to a course’s learning outcomes, and how to scaffold both technological and content learning to allow students to make positive contributions to a project external to the course. Participants will leave with a set of proven examples of effective assignments, preliminary plans for assignments for their own courses, and suggestions for how to find collaborative partners in library and technology services for such projects on their home campuses.

Bootcamp 2: If Google Can’t Find Your Project, Does It Exist? or, How to Build a Website in 90 Minutes

Presenters:

  • Quinn Dombrowski, Manager of Scholarly Technology, University of Chicago

Working on a digital humanities project? Looking for a job? An attractive, up-to-date website is an indispensable tool for keeping people informed about how your project and solicit feedback, and presenting your scholarship and research interests in an engaging way when you’re on the job market. Content management systems allow you to quickly build and update visually appealing websites without having to learn HTML.

During this bootcamp, students will build their own personal or project-focused website from scratch using WordPress, hosted for free at wordpress.com. Based on time and interest, options for expanding
their site to include themes and plug-ins not provided as part of the free package.

Bootcamp 3: Making Your First Map: An Introduction to GIS

Presenters:

  • Kristen Lukens, Instructional Technology Specialist, St. Norbert College

Bootcamp 4: Seeking Grant Funding for Digital Humanities Projects

Presenters:

During this teleconference bootcamp, Jennifer Serventi, a proud graduate of Claremont McKenna College and an NEH staff member, will provide a look at the funding opportunities for digital humanities projects throughout the NEH, with a particular focus on the programs of the NEH Office of Digital Humanities. She will provide tips and strategies for preparing successful grant applications. We will also discuss examples of successful projects lead by teams of liberal arts college faculty and staff. She would also like to hear from the THATCamp participants about how the programs offered by the Office of the Digital Humanities are (or are not) meeting the needs of faculty members and staff at institutions without a robust digital humanities support infrastructure. Participants should finish the session with a greater understanding of the digital humanities grant programs offered by the National Endowment for the Humanities and a sense of where particular project ideas might fit most appropriately within that structure.