Module I

Digital Directions of Middle Eastern Studies

What do we mean by "the Digital"? What is DH? This module surveys the landscape of digital scholarship in Middle Eastern Studies — asking what it means to think digitally about the region, and what graduate students stand to gain from engaging with these tools and methods.

2 class sessions

Key Questions

  • What do we even mean by 'the Digital'?
  • What is Digital Humanities, and what is Digital Scholarship?
  • Why Digital Methodologies for Middle Eastern Studies specifically?

Class 1 — Jan 28

Introductions

Overview of the Syllabus, Assignments, and Structure. Key questions: What do we even mean by "the Digital"? What is DH? Why Digital Methodologies? What is Digital Scholarship?

Readings & Resources

Suggested / FYI

Breakdown in Class

Medieval Trade Networks v4

From the Session

  • Fetishization of Archeology: 3D Printing Palmyra Arch in NYC
  • Interactive: Palmyra after Isis
  • Triumphal Arch of Palmyra — City Hall NYC
  • List of monuments damaged by conflict in the Middle East during the 21st century

Class 2 — Feb 4

What/Where is the Digital/Middle East?

Event Hazine: A Guide to Researching the Middle East and Beyond (12-1pm)

Signup for NYCDH week (Feb 8-11). Exploring the landscape of digital production, scholarship, and activism in and about the Middle East — and the broader questions of what "digital" even means for humanistic inquiry.

Readings & Resources

Suggested / FYI

Breakdown in Class

Palestinian Poster Project

From the Session

  • Enter the Dragnet (LAPD Database)
  • COBOL Coding and unemployment debacle
  • OpenAI: DALL-E
  • Network analysis: Six Degrees of Francis Bacon
  • NYTimes Facial AI creation