Undergraduate Courses

Requirements


Lower Division (one required): Each of these classes introduces students to the use of digital tools and methodologies to examine complex cultural, social, and historical dynamics. Minors are strongly encouraged to take either INF STD 20 or 30. See the master list for the full list of options.

Upper Division: In addition to the Lower Division course, Minors need to take:

      1. DH 101
      2. One upper division course, DH 110 – 160, and
      3. Three other upper-division electives, which may be DH courses or courses from other disciplines. See the master list for the list of options from other disciplines.

Capstone:Minors must also take either DH 187 (capstone seminar) or DH 198/199 (small research group or independent study).

Course Codes:

    • DH 110: User Experience Design
    • DH 120: Social Media Data Analytics
    • DH 125: Data Analysis for Social and Cultural Research
    • DH 131: Digital Mapping and Critical Geographic Information Systems
    • DH 140: Programming for Humanists
    • DH M145: Text Analysis
    • DH 150/151: Special topics
    • DH 187: Capstone seminar
    • DH 199: Capstone (independent study or small group)

DH 195 Internships

The DH Program does not have any DH 195 Internships approved for 2023-2024. If you are already working closely with a DH affiliated faculty member and have identified a possible internship together, then first consult with your faculty sponsor to see whether they would be willing to supervise your 195.

Course Petitions

Please fill out this form if you’d like to petition for an elective. Include all the information you can, including a syllabus, if available. Petitions will be reviewed at least once per quarter. Please email Deanna Finlay if you have additional questions.

How to register for a DH 199 course:

    1. Identify a capstone course (see below for upcoming courses)
    2. Contact the professor who is offering the course to express your interest and ask if they have room. If not, repeat step 1. If they do:
    3. Fill out a course contract on My UCLA. Each online contract form is customized for a specific course number. Before filling out the form, the student should prepare a short description of the proposed course of study, nature of faculty supervision, and type of tangible evidence of work completed to be presented at the course conclusion. The form provides instructions for completion, printing, signatures, and further steps.
    4. Email the completed course contract to your 199 professor and our SAO, Deanna Finlay, deanna@humnet.ucla.edu.

That’s it! Your professor will confirm via email that they have approved your enrollment in their 199, and Deanna will finalize your registration.

Questions?

Contact our SAO, Deanna Finlay at deanna@humnet.ucla.edu

 

 

Spring 2024

  • DH 101 – Introduction to Digital Humanities

    Instructor: Ashley Sanders

    Foundation course for students in Digital Humanities minor, providing theoretical and conceptual framework for understanding genesis of digital world. Use of contemporary cultural-historical methodology to focus on rise of new media and information technologies in 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, such as photography, film, radio, television, Internet, and World Wide Web and their impact on how individuals, groups, and cultures experienced their worlds.

  • DH 150, Sect. 1 – Digital Reconstructions on Broadway

    Instructor: Anthony Caldwell

    This course will introduce students to 3D modeling techniques in the field of cultural heritage conservation. Using the S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962, located in the UCLA Young Research Library Special Collections as a reference, students will, through in-depth archival research, 3D modeling, and augmented reality (AR.), investigate how two of the most significant theatres located in Los Angeles’s historic Broadway theatre district were constructed, decorated, and used.

  • DH 150, Sect. 2 – Digital Curation

    Instructor: Francesca Albrezzi

    In this course, students will learn the fundamentals of curation. Working with the Cashin (Bonnie) Collection of Fashion, Theater and Film Costume Design, 1913-2000, students will select main themes, identify and seek permission to use related digital artworks and resources, write wall labels, and plan a launch event. In addition, students will learn how to build a 3D environment for the works to be displayed and they will work with Mozilla Hubs and Spoke as a VR platform for exhibition.

  • DH 187, Sect. 1 – Decolonial Data: Vietnamese Historical Narratives

    Instructor: Cindy Nguyen

    Advanced focus on critical design approaches to colonial data. Topics include critical data studies, research design and experimentation, and multilingual and multimodal digital humanities analysis using a sandbox of French-colonial-era Vietnamese data (drawings, comics, library circulation records, ethnography, and demography). Class assignments include structured training, collaborative work, short writing assignments, and final projects. No background knowledge is required. Student interest in languages (Vietnamese, French, and translation) and visual analysis; and commitment to collaborative learning and critical data are key. The study includes collaborative, playful, digital storytelling experiments to situate alternative decolonial narratives. Open to graduate students.

  • DH 187, Sect. 2 – Digitizing Ancient and Modern Refugees

    Instructor: Kelly Nguyen

    Examination of refugeehood through literary and material record, with focus on ancient Greco-Roman world and contemporary Vietnamese diaspora. Drawing on critical refugee studies, investigation of politics of forced displacement in ancient and modern contexts, especially in relation to race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and colonialism and imperialism. Examination of how refugees have been discussed, portrayed, and treated. Exploration of refugeehood through perspectives and experiences of refugees themselves. Students use different digitization tools (such as 3D scanning) as they work towards digitizing artifacts from Vietnamese refugee community. Includes final project that features digitized artifacts alongside material culture from ancient world in transhistorical virtual exhibit that enhances understanding of refugeehood.

  • ENGL 129 – E.g.: Experimental Games

    Instructor: Daniel Snelson

    For example, e.g., consider Dungeons & Dragons. This once-fringe role-playing game has remained a pervasive force in tabletop gaming since its publication in 1974. However, in recent years, its popularity has skyrocketed across a range of media through edited podcasts (The Adventure Zone), streaming actual plays (Critical Role), video games (Baldur’s Gate 3), movies (Honor Among Thieves), and TV series (Stranger Things), among other genres from fan fiction and xerox zines to social media art and webcomics. In the lineage of transmedia storytelling, this seminar will consider ten games “exempli gratia” (e.g., or, for example) in emergent genres. Potential examples will be collectively determined and may include: AI Dungeon, What Remains of Edith Finch, Super Mario, the historical avant-gardes, Beat Saber, Grand Theft Auto, the Oulipo, Alan Wake, Queers in Love at the End of the World, Katamari Damacy, Elden Ring, Surrealism, Dialect, Final Fantasy, Roblox, Disco Elysium, and unexpected works that may emerge over the quarter and in collaborative conversations. Each example will spur a range of critical and scholarly experiments into the form, format, genre, and framework of each game. No previous experience with games or expanded media is necessary.

    A portion of ENGL 129 seats will be made available to Digital Humanities minors. Please contact SAO Deanna Finlay at deanna@humnet.ucla.edu. This class will count as an upper-division minor requirement.