Syllabus
Why did the first US supercomputing research center and the world’s first web browser emerge at the University of Illinois? What did the campus have to do with the emergence of electronic music in the 1950s, cybernetics history in the 1960s, the development of the internet and online video games in the 1970s, and the first digital library in the 1980s? Who were the diverse women and men who were involved with such innovations?
This course provides an overview of the histories of interdisciplinary technological innovations and innovation cultures that emerged on the Urbana-Champaign campus, bridging students and researchers across the fields of engineering, humanities, science and the arts.
We will study examples, such as accessibility, from the history of the campus’ founding and development. From being one of the nation’s first Land Grant institutions in 1862, opening access to higher education for diverse classes of students, to its development of the first Disabilities Resources and Educational Services (DRES) office on campus, Illinois was instrumental in standardizing accessibility in new architectural designs, athletic programs, and sports programs in the 20th century. This case is just one of many this course covers that demonstrates how interdisciplinary cultural convergences helped the campus lead in innovations around design for a diverse public.
Students will use a variety of primary sources, from interviews and news media, to advertisements, to materials drawn from the University Archives. As part of a final research project, students will produce their own digital projects that continue to explore how the history of regional and local innovations at Illinois helps us understand contemporary innovation practices and ventures, from the growth of new design centers across US campuses to contemporary practices in accessibility design. By the conclusion of the course, students will be able to narrate various “Illinois firsts” of which many off and on-campus, in our experience, have very little knowledge.
All readings and clips for discussion are available through the Readings/Schedule page. While discussing historical readings as a class, we will critically assess the production and distribution of such stories and what makes successful documentary video clips charismatic, as well as host speakers with experience and expertise with the different innovations highlighted in our readings and class sessions.
*Note: This course is part of the work of the Humanities Without Walls Innovation in the Global Midwest research cluster. This Mellon-funded research collaboration brings together scholars from UIUC, Purdue University, and the University of Minnesota. It adopts a distinct approach to innovation studies by looking to shed light on inter-disciplinary digital developments in the Midwest – from educational and public computing, to precision agriculture and rural big data processing, to electro-acoustic design – that necessarily bridged expertise from social sciences, natural sciences, engineering, and humanities; and that have frequently been overlooked, even as they have played roles in reshaping global disciplinary imaginaries, markets, and ecologies. We propose a strategy to develop a means to extend research and pedagogical resources – both existing and proposed, and both physical and digital – to expand greater visibility of such local, multi-disciplinary histories around collaborative regional innovation.
Final Project and Paper
Students will produce a digital project of their choosing (be it, for instance, a three to five minute student-produced video, a podcast series, a Scalar book, an advocacy blog, an online interview archive, etc.) on an under-recognized campus innovation. While expectations for student projects will vary greatly depending on project topics and their chosen digital formats and will be agreed upon through individual meetings, all projects must incorporate materials from the University Archives, coverage from The Daily Illini, and at least a brief sound recording or brief video content. The course does not assume students have any prior experience in video production or working with archived materials, and will walk students through these processes in preparation for the final project.
Students will also write a brief paper of two to three pages to accompany their digital projects. This will serve as a design justification that presents a pitch for the project while explicating the story behind the project, the project’s intended audience, its outreach strategy, its selection of primary and secondary sources, and its choice of format and platform. It will also present a full bibliography for the project, which will draw both from selections from the course syllabus as well as additional relevant resources that students have incorporated. Both the final project and the final paper are due at the start of our final class session, in which students will present their projects to the class. There will be no final exam for this course.
Requirements
Though the main assignment at the conclusion of the course will be the student-produced digital project, there will be various assignments leading up to the project that will guide students’ thinking in terms of their intended audience, distribution plan, and content. Not only will this provide opportunities for stimulating ideas in relation to the projects and receiving instructor feedback while they are in development, but they will also augment course conversations on the complex nature of narrating local innovations.
Readings will be posted to our class site. An assigned reaction (min. 2 pages) to the readings should also be posted to your own Scalar site, and the link sent to me by 9A the day of class. Reactions should either respond to a specific question given to you in advance or identify arguments, common themes, oppositions, and issues worthy of further discussion from the texts. Use of visuals are terrific, but should not be used as filler or in place of analysis. No incompletes/makeups are assigned.
Grade Breakdown
Participation: 20%
Weekly Scalar blogs: 30%
Project proposal: 10%
Final paper: 20%
Final project: 20%