Avant-Gardes and Émigrés: Digital Humanities Lab (original) (raw)

DESCRIPTION: The Avant-Gardes and Émigrés Lab, a highly collaborative experimental seminar open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates, has two primary objectives: to familiarize students with the work of some of the most influential Russian artists, writers, and thinkers of the twentieth century; and to introduce students to new ways of conducting and presenting research, using digital tools. The flow of persons, texts, and ideas from the Soviet Union influenced the dynamics of American culture during the Cold War, through institutions, academic practices, theoretical approaches and methodologies, and cultural forums—from the Yale Slavic department to the New Yorker. In this course, we will foreground the continuity of Russian Formalism, structuralism, semiotics, and discourse theory with Digital Humanities work today. We will explore the close relationship between avant-garde aesthetics and Formalist theory, and the dissemination and evolution of interpretive practices through emigration. Our guiding questions are: How have these networks shaped our own education, methods, tastes, and biases as scholars, as well as those of communities outside of academia? How do they shift over time? And how might all of the above be reimagined—indeed, how are they already being reshaped—in the digital age, given the technological, socioeconomic , and political present? The seminar will frequently meet in the Beinecke Library and in the DH Lab in Sterling Library, and will include guest lectures, training workshops, and invaluable contributions from Yale's CTL and DH Lab staff and Beinecke and Sterling librarians. All assignments for the course, including final written work, are designed to contribute to a course website that we will build together as our collective achievement from the seminar. REQUIREMENTS: Attendance and participation 20% Regular reading responses (Classesv2 /alternative platform) 20% Project proposals and progress presentations 20% Final research paper, online posting, and symposium presentation 40% • All students will be asked to post a short response, question, or intervention (1–2 paragraphs; other media welcome) based on the readings prior to each session. We will experiment with online platforms as part of our ongoing collaborative attempt to enhance and extend discussion beyond the classroom—and to think critically about media and technology even as we seek creative ways to use them in our academic work. • Halfway through the semester, students will identify research projects based on the course themes and materials. You will organize into research teams, and write and present project proposals and works-in-progress during the second half of the semester, en route to the final assignment. • Term papers will take the form of online texts and conference presentations at an end-of-term symposium. Alongside written analysis, students will practice presenting research and working with visual material, and will work collaboratively to create usable online tools for the ongoing research platform.