Application for 685: Directed Studies
Shawn W. Moore
Spring 2012
3 Hour Credit
Justification
The requirements for the Digital Humanities certificate at Texas A&M University include an
“independent study project” in which a report is presented to the certificate coordinator,
evaluated, and archived on the Digital Humanities certificate website. The independent study
should be completed when coursework for the certificate is completed. Since I will be taking Dr.
Amy Earhart’s Digital Textual Studies course to fulfill my last course requirement, I will also
need to complete my independent study requirement. I will learn practical theory and skills to
aid further professional and scholarly development through directed readings based on my
subject area of choice during this spring semester.
This independent study course will produce a digital visualization project, but a traditional
scholarly paper of 12-20 pages will also be required. The course will include research into
various mapping methods such as ArcGIS and Augmented Reality mapping, and textual studies
tools such as Voyeur (recently renamed Voyant), in order to determine which program would be
best for the project proposed below.
The final paper will draw on the theoretical research completed at the beginning of class to
rationalize the project; in addition, it will construct a scholarly argument about the relationship
between spatial and temporal movements in the sociable writing of Margaret Cavendish as a way
to map networks of associations in early English Restoration dramatic and interpersonal writings.
The second half of the article will be supplemented by the visualization project and additional
secondary sources/research.
The overall goals of this course are to explore the mapping possibilities available for historic
literary scholarship for investigations of the early English Restoration writing of Margaret
Cavendish. Though the independent study is meant to be specific rather than broad, this study
will also provide a practical background in and introduction into the digital humanities
community, and produce a project and final scholarly paper that reflects a high quality of
research, theoretical soundness, and a contribution to the early modern literary and digital
humanities communities.
Proposed Schedule of Readings and Assignments
January 17th-February 3rd
Researching Mapping Programs and General Mapping Background
Readings:
Researching programs and the history of spatial projects will consist of sifting through
many blogs and bookmarking sites recommended by organizations such as the
Association for Computers and the Humanities, the Institute for Enabling Geospatial
Scholarship, and the Historical GIS Research Network. However, a few published articles
and books will be carefully examined:
Bimber, Oliver and Ramesh Raskar. Spatial Augmented Reality: Merging Real and Virtual
Worlds. New York: A. K. Peters, Ltd., 2005. Print.
Bodenhamer D.J., et al., eds. The Spatial Humanties: GIS and the Future of Humanities
Scholarship. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP, 2010. Print.
Douglas, Audrey, and Sally-Beth MacLean, eds. REED in Review: Essays in Celebration of the
First Twenty-Five Years. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2006. Print.
Gregory, Ian N. and Paul S. Ell. Historical GIS: Technologies, Methodologies, and Scholarship.
Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008. Print.
Moretti, Franco. Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for Literary History. London: Verso,
2007. Print.
Mullen, Tony. Prototyping Augmented Reality. New York: Sybex, 2011. Print.
Assignments:
A one page progress report, or summary of readings, will be turned into the Faculty
Director weekly.
February 6th-March 24th
Data Collecting and Mapping Project
Readings:
Data will be collected from traditional textual sources, and online sources that have data
on Cavendish’s texts. This includes:
Digital Sources:
Sinclair, Stefan. “Voyeur Tools.” http://voyeurtools.org/
“Perdita.” University of Warwick. http://www.warwick.ac.uk/english/perdita/html/
Steen, Francis F. “Restoration Print Culture: A Multimedia Presentation.” University of
California at Los Angeles. 19 Jan. 2006. http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Restoration/index.html
Women Writers Project. Women Writers Project, Brown University. 29 Feb. 2000
<http://www.wwp.brown.edu/>.
Textual Sources:
Cavendish Margaret. The Convent of Pleasure and Other Plays (1668).
---. The Blazing World (1666); and Selections from Political Writings.
---. Sociable Letters (1673).
Assignments:
Using the collected data above, the inclusion of chronological dates, and generated GPS
coordinates through historical/contemporary generating programs (GoogleEarth), I will
be inserting information into the chosen mapping and textual visualization program in
order to visualize spatial and temporal patterns in relation to social movements (physical
and intellectual) in Cavendish’s letters.
A weekly progress report will be delivered orally and/or in written form to the Faculty
Director.
March 26th-May 1st
Secondary Research and Synthesizing Visualized Data
Readings:
Secondary scholarly research into the social networks and relationships of Cavendish’s
movements within the court of Henrietta Maria and while at the Cavendish estate in
Newcastle-upon-Tyne will be conducted.
Batigelli, Anna. Margaret Cavendish and the Exiles of the Mind. Louisville: The U P of
Kentucky, 1998. Print.
Britland, Karen. Drama at the Courts of Queen Henrietta Maria. Cambridge:
Cambridge U P, 2009. Print.
Cottegnies, Line and Nancy Weitz eds. Authorial Conquests: Essays on Genre in the
Writings of Margaret Cavendish. New York: Lexington Books, 2003. Print.
Ezell, Margaret J. M. “The Myth of Judith Shakespeare: Creating the Canon of Women’s
Literature.” New Literary History 21.3 (1990): 579-592. Print.
---. '“To Be Your Daughter in Your Pen’: The Social Functions of Literature in the
Writings of Lady Elizabeth Brackley and Lady Jane Cavendish.” Huntington
Library Quarterly 51.4 (1988): 281-296. Print.
Fiztmaurice, James. “Fancy and the Family: Self-characterizations of Margaret
Cavendish.” Huntington Library Quarterly 53.3 (1990): 198-209. Print.
---. “Margaret Cavendish on Her Own Wrting: Evidence from Revision and Handmade
Correction.” PBSA 85.3 (1991): 297-308. Print.
Hurley, Alison. “Peculiar Christians, Circumstantial Courtiers, and the Making of
Conversation in Seventeenth-Century England.” Representations 111.1 (2010):
33-59. Print.
Larson, Katherine R. Early Modern Women in Conversation. London: Palgrave
MacMillian, 2011. Print.
Masten, Jeffrey. “Material Cavendish: Paper, Performance, ‘Sociable Virginity.’”
Modern Language Quarterly 65.1 (2004): 49-68. Print.
Rees Emma L. E. Margaret Cavendish: Gender, Genre, Exile. Manchester: Manchester
U P, 2004. Print.
Romack, Katherine and James Fitzmaurice eds. Cavendish and Shakespeare:
Interconnections. London: Ashgate Pub Co., 2006. Print.
Whitaker, Katie. Mad Madge. New York: Basic Books, 2003. Print.
Sarasohn, Lisa T. The Natural Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish. Baltimore: The
Johns Hopkins U P, 2010. Print.
Assignments:
A traditional scholarly article will be produced that utilizes the visualized primary data
and secondary. The article will also discuss and explore the future of digital humanities
visual scholarship in literary studies.
An outline or abstract, including an initial bibliography, will be due in oral and written
form by April 6th
A rough draft will be due on April 27th.
May 9th
Final Paper Due
May 14th
Grades for all students due.