Digital Humanities and Renaissance Studies

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In late fourteenth century Italy, there arose a craze for all things ancient. This shaped new forms of literature, philosophy, statecraft, art and architecture that would cast a long shadow in Europe and beyond in the following centuries. It also produced scholars and artists, may of whom have become household names, e.g. Leonardo da Vinci, Machiavelli, Michaelangelo and Thomas More. This course will provide a survey of this exciting period of world history and the latest methods used by historians to study it. The course will introduce some of the main figures, texts and works of art associated with the period, as well as some of the most innovative modern techniques for studying it drawn from data science, especially Natural Language Processing (NLP). No background in Renaissance history or digital history is required. Although the work for this course can be undertaken on any device, a laptop (Windows) is preferred.