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UW Textual Studies Unveils New Classes for Spring Quarter 2025

Upcoming Classes in the Textual Studies Minor and Graduate Certificate Programs

The UW Textual Studies Program has unveiled new courses for Spring 2025! In this blog, we’ll give you all the details of these upcoming classes. From book arts to manuscripts, to Scandinavian mythology, there’s tons to explore in TXTDS courses. Read on to find out more about our spring quarter offerings. 

Courses in the Undergraduate Minor and Graduate Certificate in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities

The UW Textual Studies Program encompasses a wide range of courses in a variety of departments and subject fields. Covering topics such as book history, bibliography, digital humanities, print cultures and more, there is sure to be a Textual Studies course that fits your interests. 

The UW Textual Studies Program offers programs for both undergraduate and graduate students. The UW Textual Studies and Digital Humanities Minor is a 25-credit program in which students take courses from two distributions: the Core Courses and the Electives. They additionally complete a Capstone course, TXTDS 405, which can be taken in any quarter and is a culminating project conducted under the guidance of a faculty advisor or a librarian. 

The Graduate Certificate in Textual and Digital Studies is based on the completion of 16 total credits, including two classes from the Core Electives, one open elective chosen in consultation with the student’s TDS advisor, and a Capstone course, which connects the students primary program and graduate work with their work in TXTDS.  

For spring 2025, Textual Studies has introduced a series of new and returning classes that fit each of these requirements. Continue reading to find out more about the courses on offer. 

Spring 2025 TXTDS Core Courses

TXTDS 402 Book Arts: Proseminar in Special Collections, Bibliography, and Letterpress Printing

Have you ever wanted to learn about working in archives, handling historical materials, or the process of letterpress printing? This small seminar will allow students interested in the Textual Studies and Digital Humanities minor an opportunity to discover UW Libraries’ Special Collections and get hands-on experience with the historical and archival materials housed therein. Plus, students enrolled in the seminar will also learn about printing techniques, including instruction in letterpress printing with the help of Seattle-based letterpress printing non-profit, Partners in Print.

TXTDS 404/504 Texts, Publics, and Publication: Digital Editing and Publishing

Instructor: Professor Geoffrey Turnovsky

We’ll study the history of editorial and publication processes, from early print-shops to the impacts of digitization today. How does editing and publishing shape and reshape texts along with the publics that read them? How is digitization now impacting our writing, reading, archiving, and preservation practices? What is the future of publishing in the age of AI and social media? We’ll learn techniques in digital editing and publishing, including transcription (manual and automatic) and text encoding using the XML-based guidelines of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). We’ll learn to query and process TEI-encoded texts using XPath and XSLT, and we’ll explore web publishing, including an introduction to HTML and CSS, and other web publishing tools.

Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of XML before. No prior experience with encoding or transcription is required or expected! You’ll be walked through the process step-by-step and will gain a host of new skills by the end of the quarter.

Spring 2025 TXTDS Electives

TXTDS 220 Making Manuscripts: Manuscript and Handwriting Technologies From Antiquity to Today

Instructor: Professor Beatrice Arduini

Quills, pens, pencils, vellum and paper: we forget in our digital age that the most enduring writing technologies have been the tools we use to write by hand. We still often sign, now with a stylus or our finger on a screen. In this course, students will explore the rich history of handwriting and manuscripts, from medieval manuscripts to handwriting today.

During the quarter, students enrolled in the course will also get to visit UW Special Collections and see rare manuscript fragments and books up close, some even dating back to the 12th century!

ENGL 322 Medieval and Early Modern Literatures of Encounter

Instructor: Professor Rhema Hokama

This course focuses on cultural encounters across medieval and early modern worlds. We will explore medieval and early modern travel writing and the dramatic and poetic responses to these tales of global travel–focusing especially on European travels to Asia and the Americas. In our readings of writers like William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, Thomas More, John Donne, Luís de Camões, and Marco Polo, we’ll reflect on how European discourses about race, religion, and geopolitical power were shaped by the global exchange of goods and ideas. 

SCAND 330 Scandinavian Mythology

Instructor: Professor Timothy Bourns

During this course, students will have the chance to explore and study religious life in the pre-Christian North. You’ll explore various source materials, including the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, and will discuss historical, archeological, and folkloric evidence. 

MELC 211 Introduction to Myths of the Ancient Middle East

Instructor: Professor Kathryn Medill

Throughout this course, students will explore myths from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, and Israel. How did the world come to be the way it is, and how did these myths shape ancient peoples’ views of themselves? How and why did ancient people use myths as part of their religious practices and daily lives? Why did some myths stay in circulation for over a thousand years? And how did ancient scribes edit and reframe myths over time to serve new purposes? No prerequisites. Final project instead of final exam.

ART H 400 Art History and Criticism: Haiti and Print Culture in the Age of Revolution

Instructor: Professor Jennifer Baez

This course considers printed material and ephemera that circulated in the Black Atlantic during the runup to and the aftermath of the Haitian Revolution. Our goal is to trace how print media created affective networks. Each week centers different topoi leading to The Burning Plantation theme; that is, images produced to activate anxiety over the threat of revolt. Students will engage a variety of printed imagery including imperial cartography, portraits of revolutionary leaders, and depictions of the laboring Black body. Paired readings will highlight the role of print in forming readerships. The final project is a digital, student-led exhibition that reflects on Black Atlantic print culture and its circulation, manipulation, translation, and re-purposing.

This class is also open to those enrolled in the Textual and Digital Studies Graduate Certificate Program and satisfies one of the two required Core Elective courses.

UW Textual Studies and UW Global Literary Studies Printmaking Social Hour

If you are curious about any of these courses, be sure to stop by our upcoming Printmaking Social Hour, hosted jointly with UW Global Literary Studies. On Thursday, January 30th from 3:30pm to 5pm in HUB 337, you can come hear about these courses, make your own linocut prints, enjoy some snacks, and connect with people in the UW Textual Studies and UW Global Literary Studies programs.

If you would like more information about these upcoming spring quarter 2025 classes or the Textual Studies minor or graduate certificate programs, you can also email us at text@uw.edu.

Keep up with all things TXTDS, including news, projected courses, and upcoming events by signing up for our mailing list and by following us on Instagram and X

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UW Textual Studies and Digital Humanities Minor Interns with Seattle-Based Letterpress Printing Non-Profit

Cassidy Vierling Completes Capstone Project with Partners in Print

During the summer quarter, UW Textual Studies student Cassidy Vierling completed her culminating Capstone project as part of the requirements for the UW Textual Studies and Digital Humanities Minor. Working with Seattle-based letterpress printing non-profit, Partners in Print, Cassidy learned the ins and outs of letterpress printing, while researching and writing about the history and evolution of letterforms. In her own words, Cassidy describes her summer internship, reflects upon her work in contemporary letterpress, and describes what she learned through her research. Read on to find out more!

Letterpress Printing Internship with Partners in Print

My name is Cassidy, and I am a history major, currently minoring in Textual Studies and English. I am interested in literary history and printing history, which the Textual Studies minor allows me to learn about and explore in detail. For my Capstone this summer, I undertook an internship with Partners in Print, a non-profit printing company in Seattle born out of the School of Visual Concepts. As part of my internship I organized PiP’s wood type collection, helped run walk-up workshops at events where the public could print posters to take home, and assisted with logging volunteer information into their database. Interning at a printing company allowed me to learn more about the history of print and print technology, as well as take part in the letterpress printing scene as it exists in the modern world. 

Textual Studies Minor Researches the History of Letterforms

Inspired from my internship work handling and organizing moveable type, I wrote my Capstone paper on the history of letterforms, specifically analyzing significant technologies’ roles in determining the shape of letterforms. I studied how manuscript writing, moveable type, the typewriter, and the personal computer each created new sets of rules that constrained or expanded the art of letterform creation. In the end, I determined that the cultural and societal needs that accompany a technology do as much to shape the letterforms of that time or place as the technology itself does.

Capstone Opportunities in the UW Textual Studies Minor

The Capstone is the culminating project of the Minor in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities. It is undertaken during any quarter of the academic year and is designed to bring together the minor’s learning goals with the skills gained during the course of the program. Working alongside a faculty member, a librarian, or with an organization in the form of an internship, students can explore their individual interests and build skills to support them in their future careers and studies. 

Congratulations to Cassidy on completing her Capstone project! To find out more about the Minor in Textual Study and Digital Humanities, Capstone requirements, and upcoming TXTDS courses, you can explore our website or email text@uw.edu.

To keep up to date on all things TXTDS, sign up for our mailing list and be sure to follow us on Instagram and X.

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Textual Studies and Digital Humanities Minor Researches Accessibility in Library Exhibitions for Capstone Project

Ayla Tanurhan Collaborates with UW Special Collections Exhibitions on Inclusive Design

Over the spring 2024 quarter, UW Textual Studies student Ayla Tanurhan completed the undergraduate Minor in Textual Study and Digital Humanities with a culminating Capstone project in collaboration with UW Special Collections Exhibitions. In her own words, Ayla describes her work on accessible and inclusive design for both physical and digital exhibits at the UW Libraries. Read on to find out more about Ayla’s Capstone project, her interests in access and inclusion, and her time in the UW Textual Studies Program

Inclusivity and Access in Cultural Institutions

Ayla Tanurhan (‘24) majored in Art History and Political Science and minored in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities, additionally completing Interdisciplinary Honors and Art History Honors. She is particularly interested in cultural institutions, looking to increase access within these spaces through various means. As Henry Art Liaison at the Henry Art Gallery, she developed programs centered around rethinking the traditional museum experience. She also sat on the Accessibility Committee, supporting efforts to develop museum initiatives. In her future work, she hopes to continue to support cultural institutions in their efforts to provide opportunities for engagement for all. 

Capstone Project on Exhibition Accessibility in UW Special Collections

Working with support from Kat Lewis, Special Projects Curator in UW Special collections, I researched and developed a report regarding accessibility within exhibitions. As we were looking to expand accessibility within Special Collections Exhibitions, my research centered on various components including accessible design principles, digital humanities, and industry standards. This project sat at a niche intersection between the library and the museum, so I dove into both sectors, engaging with literature on accessibility in archives and accessibility in museums and exhibitions. Principles of Universal Design were also a key thread throughout my research, providing the grounding framework for the work we hoped to do within Digital Exhibitions. As stated within my report, it is imperative that we design these tools with Accessibility at the forefront, ensuring that our exhibitions are open for learning and engagement for all visitors and viewers. 

Universal Design Framework for Physical and Digital Exhibits

Through my research, we developed a framework for exhibitions centered on Universal Design. This is a strategy for creating spaces and environments which center accessibility for all. During the project, we took a twofold approach, in which we ideated initiatives for the physical exhibition space as well as produced a plan for the introduction and expansion of digital exhibitions. Within my role, I produced a research report, conducted a space survey, ideated physical and digital solutions, developed and edited checklists, and summarized our findings within a report. The emphasis on digital exhibitions allowed me to implement my learnings from my Textual Studies and Digital Humanities background. 

Digital Strategies for Accessible Collections

Digital Humanities is particularly useful in increasing Accessibility, and many institutions are introducing digital projects and tools as means through which audiences of all backgrounds can engage with cultural artifacts. In regards to digital exhibitions, much of this work relies heavily on digitizing projects, and we looked at OCR and HTA as technologies that could support this work. Alt text is another key component of this initiative, meaning that we need to ensure that there is ample metadata and collection data regarding artifacts in the exhibition. We were additionally hoping to bring interactive elements into the digital platform as well, so that all components of the physical exhibition space are also available in the digital space. Underlying all of this work is an important tenant, taken from the field of Universal Design. Our work within cultural institutions should always aim to encompass as many individuals as possible, continuously striving to design cultural experiences for all visitors rather than retroactively finding solutions.

Congratulations to Ayla on completing her Capstone project, as well as the Textual Studies minor! To find out more about the Minor in Textual Study and Digital Humanities, Capstone requirements, and upcoming TXTDS courses, you can explore our website or email text@uw.edu. You can digital accessibility and inclusive design in our recent blog post, where we spoke to Elliott Stevens about his work on the UW Libraries Storytelling Fellows and his tips for accessible practices in digital scholarship. 

To keep up to date on all things TXTDS, sign up for our mailing list and be sure to follow us on Instagram and X.

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UW Libraries Hosts Storytelling Fellows Podcasting Workshop

Elliott Stevens on Digital Scholarship and Accessibility in Storytelling

Over the past four weeks, the University of Washington Libraries has hosted a program called Storytelling Fellows. Led by UW Textual Studies’ own Elliott Stevens (Research Commons and English Studies Librarian, UW Libraries), alongside Perry Yee, Kathryn Miller, Dylan Burns, and Jinny Sanders, this workshop helps students and faculty build the skills necessary to create and share a podcast episode. We sat down with Stevens to talk about the Storytelling Fellows Workshop and his interests in digital scholarship and accessibility. Read on to find out more!

What is Digital Storytelling Fellows?

Started in 2017, Stevens explains, the Digital Storytelling Fellows is a technical workshop designed for graduate students and faculty who want to learn about digital techniques for the creation of multimodal scholarship and composition. This fall, the 32 fellows enrolled in the program have focused on podcasting, a longstanding mode of digital scholarship, as they’ve worked through the production of a short podcast segment. Throughout this one-month workshop, participants gather for four synchronous meetings in which they learn about various tools, platforms, and strategies for developing and hosting a podcast while sharing their work in a collaborative space along the way. Between these meetings, fellows work on their digital creations and connect with the program’s instructors, who Stevens describes as coaches, cheering participants on and encouraging them to try new things while offering guidance and technical expertise. He sees this coaching approach as one of the unique benefits of the fellows program. Often, working with technology can involve hurdles and frustrations, but the coaches in this workshop focus on helping participants get through the ups and downs of tech-centric scholarship through their blend of support and technical knowledge.

Woman typing on a computer at a table with a notepad and coffee to the side.
Digital Storytelling Fellows is a technical workshop designed for graduate students and faculty who want to learn about digital scholarship.

UW Libraries Research Commons and Open Scholarship Commons Sponsored Digital Workshop

Digital Storytelling Fellows is supported by the UW Libraries Research Commons, Libraries Instructional Design, and the Open Scholarship Commons (OSC). The Research Commons and the OSC are two places on the UW campus where students, faculty, researchers, and instructors can connect across disciplines while doing technology-driven scholarship. This mission is echoed in the Digital Storytelling Fellows and its commitment to building an online community of interdisciplinary scholars, researchers, and students working on digital projects through their free, online workshop program.

Stevens and Perry Yee developed the program after realizing that, to their knowledge, there were no other free or low-cost workshops focused on digital scholarship methods that were totally online. For their inaugural session in 2017, the Fellows program focused on video creation and editing using the browser-based software WeVideo. After a successful launch, the Digital Storytelling Fellows took suggestions about what kind of scholarly modes participants would want next. They landed on podcasting after receiving much interest in the topic, as well as finding that podcasting was an underserved medium in this kind of free and online programming. 

The UW Libraries Podcast Workshop

There are four sessions throughout the workshop, Stevens tells us. The first meeting welcomes and introduces fellows to the program, getting them situated with Audacity, a digital audio recording and editing software, and setting them up with the tools they’ll need to complete the program. They also begin imagining an introduction for their podcasts, which leads them into the second session where they level-up in technical skills. In this second week, participants also listen to example podcasts and deconstruct them, learning how to layer audio files and build a world through the combination of different sounds. Session three is Stevens’ favorite: the draft workshop. During this week’s meeting, fellows bring whatever they’ve completed of their podcast, whether that be a full or partial script draft, raw recordings, or interview audio, and participate in a constructive feedback session that helps them to ascertain initial audience reactions. The fourth and final session is a reflection and a celebration for completing the workshop, where participants share their newly finished episodes, clips, or segments.

Over the four weeks, fellows receive individual mentorship from the program’s four coaches and participate in small-group learning, with eight or so participants in each session. This group-based model allows for the development of a small, supportive community, with lots of space for check-ins and one-on-one feedback. In addition to the larger topics of each weekly session, participants can also ask individualized questions aimed at their particular projects. Overall, the Digital Storytelling Fellows gives students and faculty the opportunity to work with others doing similar digital scholarship, creating an infrastructure of support and interdisciplinary community, while helping them achieve their research goals through a defined set of deadlines.

Digital Accessibility, Podcasting, and the Importance of Inclusive Scholarship

While in the Digital Storytelling Fellows program, participants also learn about the importance of accessibility in digital scholarship and podcasting, which is a particular interest of Stevens who, in his work as the UW Libraries Research Commons Librarian, has taken an active role in prioritizing inclusive materials and researching the accessibility of digital tools after working with Hadi Rangin, an information technology accessibility specialist for Accessible Technology Services (ATS)

When the Fellows program first ran in 2017, it focused on video creation and editing, but the organizers found that there was a prohibitive cost entailed in using accessible video editing software and realized that accessible podcasting technologies were much more freely available. Currently, they run the workshop using Audacity, which not only has inclusive features built into its software but also makes its accessible documentation available for users. In addition to the technology they use, Digital Storytelling Fellows also teaches podcasters to incorporate best practices for accessibility into their creations. During the workshop, they learn about strategies, like captioning and transcripts, that can help enrich their storytelling by making it user-friendly for all future audience members. 

Best Practices for Digital Media Creation and Design for Assistive Technology 

Part of Stevens’ work at UW Libraries also includes visiting classes to share what he’s learned about digital media creation and designing for assistive technology. There are seven questions he proposes creators ask to ensure they’re creating with accessibility in mind:

Digital Storytelling Fellows learn about accessible strategies, such as transcripts and captioning, to help improve the usability of their digital stories.

1. Are you using headings correctly? 

When designing digital projects, especially website content, you’ll typically include headings (h1, h2, h3, h4). These not only affect the design and layout of your pages, but give your content an organizational structure that can be used by screen reading technology to understand the layout and organization of your content. Making sure you use headings and that you nest them properly is just one simple way you can improve the usability of your digital content. 

2. Do your colors have enough contrast? 

One simple way to make your design user-friendly is to make sure you have enough contrast in your color scheme. Incorporating an accessibility checker, like Lighthouse, can run an analysis on your pages and determine if your contrast is high enough.

3. Do you have appropriate alternative text for your images and do you include captions? 

Alternative text or alt text describes images that appear in digitally-created content. This information, alongside image captions, can be extremely helpful for users employing screen readers so that your images can be visible through text-based means. Alt text, alongside captions, should describe the content in a straightforward manner that is concise and specific. It should also place the image in the context of its purpose on the web page and in relation to the other written content it compliments. 

4. Is your link text descriptive? 

It might be tempting to link out to content with phrasing like, “click here,” but link text should actually describe where and with what the link is connected. For example, if you wanted to link to upcoming UW Textual Studies Courses, you should place the link within the text that best describes it. 

5. Have you included captions and transcripts for your media projects? 

When creating in audio or video modes, or if you’re incorporating audio or video files into your content, you want to make sure that you also include captions and transcripts that accurately reflect the audio and video files so that users deploying assistive technologies can experience it accurately. 

6. Are your PDFs accessible? 

Sometimes, digital content includes images or PDFs with textual content. You’ll want to make sure that, no matter what format you’re sharing in, your content can be read with screen readers. There are various tools that you can use to make your PDFs usable with screen reading, but an easy way to test either your images or PDFs is to try highlighting text with your mouse. If you can, great! If not, your files probably aren’t accessible. Even if this first test goes smoothly, it’s always worth checking your files with software like Adobe that can not only help make sure all your text is readable, but that the content also has a structural organization to help ensure  a screen reader goes through the text in a logical order. 

7. Is your digital content designed for use without a mouse? 

Not all users use a mouse to navigate digital content. One way you can check if your content is navigable without the use of a mouse is to test if you can move around your site with just your keyboard using the tab, shift + tab, arrow keys, space bar, enter, and escape functions. If you can’t, you might need to think about the underlying structure of your site or, if you’ve used a content management platform, whether you might consider another digital content tool that attends to accessibility in its template design. 

Digital Scholarship at UW Libraries OSC and UW Textual Studies

If you’re interested in learning more about digital media projects, keep your eyes out for future Digital Storytelling Fellows sessions! You can also check out the UW Libraries OSC and sign up for their listserv to keep up to date on exciting upcoming events centered around digital scholarship and interdisciplinary research. 

And don’t forget to check out UW Textual Studies courses. Many of our classes, as well as the culminating Capstone project, offer opportunities for you to experiment with digital projects and technologies! Many thanks to Elliott Stevens for sharing his work on the Digital Storytelling Fellows and digital accessibility! 

For UW Textual Studies news, upcoming events, and updates on faculty and student research, sign up for the Textual Studies listserv and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and X.

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UW Textual Studies Minor Completes Capstone on Digital Exhibition

Bonnie Ha on Collaborating with UW Special Collections for Online Exhibition of Historical Anatomy Books

Over the summer quarter, UW Textual Studies student Bonnie Ha completed her Capstone project and, with it, the undergraduate Minor in Textual Study and Digital Humanities. The Capstone is a culminating project, undertaken during any quarter of the academic year, that brings together the minor’s learning goals with the skills gained during the course of the program. In her own words, Bonnie describes her collaboration with UW Special Collections and her work researching and digitizing historical anatomy books. Read on to find out more!

Digital Project Documents Rare Materials in the History of Science

This summer I worked with Special Collections on an upcoming anatomy exhibit. The end-product of my capstone project was a website featuring anatomy illustrations from different texts spanning a date range from the mid 1700s to late 1900s. To start, I did background research on the history of anatomical drawings to get familiar with the subject and found some notable figures, including Henry Gray and John and Charles Bell. During the course of my research, I found that anatomical drawings of this period towed the line between being extremely accurate and having an artistic style of their own. This was interesting to me because the mixture of precision and style was something I had never thought about before when considering scientific illustration.

Since the exhibit was in the early stages of production at the time of my collaboration, I got to go into the basement of Special Collections to help select the texts that would later be digitized. One of the texts I selected caught my eye because I could see the grain lines of its paper and the signature marks for the book’s binding. Overall, the selection process was quite a neat experience for me, as I was surrounded by a bunch of old books and rare materials. 

After picking the books that would go into the exhibition, I used a Bookeye Scanner, which is a special high-powered scanner designed for use in libraries, archives, and museums, to digitize the pages of the books to be put on the website. When building the website, we used WordPress, which was a bit of a technical hurdle for me to figure out at first. In the future, I hope to work in the museum space where I can use the skills I learned over the course of the Textual Studies minor and my work on this capstone project.

Digital Scans of Scientific Illustrations from UW Libraries’ Special Collections

Congratulations to Bonnie on completing her Capstone project, as well as the Textual Studies minor! To find out more about the Minor in Textual Study and Digital Humanities, Capstone requirements, and upcoming TXTDS courses, you can explore our website or email text@uw.edu. You can also sign up for our mailing list and follow us on Instagram and X.

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UW Textual Studies adds Research Associate in Program Development and Outreach

Hello everyone! My name is Nikita Willeford Kastrinos and I’m very excited to join the UW Textual Studies Program as a Research Associate this academic year. I’m a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of English and an alum of the UW Textual Studies graduate certificate program. In this blog, I’ll tell you a bit about myself and my research, as well as my role this year working with the program.

I specialize in British literature of the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with concentrations in book history, the environmental humanities, media and material cultural studies, and the digital humanities. I’m currently completing my dissertation, Of Form(es) and Form(ats): Ecologies of the Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Novel. This project narrates an ecological history of print in Britain by examining the developing genre of the novel. Moving from its emergence in the hand-press period to its mass production in the machine-press era, this work tracks the novel’s literary development as it coincides with the shift from pre- to post-industrialized print and the rise of extraction capitalism, offering new ways to think about the relationship between literature and the environment.

Participating in the UW Textual Studies Graduate Certificate in Textual and Digital Studies was hugely influential in developing my dissertation research. My capstone project, “Intimate Threads: Text and Textile in the Pages of Pamela,” began my thinking about the materiality of the book object and its natural origins, and research support from the program helped me to visit library collections important to my chapters, such as my visit to Emory University, where I got to view first and early editions of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Most recently, UW Textual Studies support helped me to attend to Rare Book School at the University of Chicago for the inaugural session of “An Environmental History of the Book,” a course taught by Dr. Eric Slaughter (University of Chicago) focused on the way in which the natural world has shaped the book object and how book objects, in turn, shape our perceptions of nature and environment. From papyrus fragments to bookworm holes to arsenic-dyed bookcloth, we learned about the ecological origins and impacts of books and writing from antiquity to the present day.

This year as an Research Associate, I’m looking forward to contributing to the UW Textual Studies program by helping to reach new students and academic units who can join in and add to the interdisciplinary community of UW Textual Studies. I’m especially excited to work with programs within and outside the university, like the UW Humanities Data Lab, the UW Libraries, Open Scholarship Commons, and Special Collections, and the Seattle-based non-profit, Partners in Print, to help generate new possibilities for research collaboration with UW students completing their Textual Studies capstones.

But most of all, I’m gratified to be in a position to help encourage students in their own research trajectories, connecting them with classes and opportunities that can inspire them and enrich their time in the UW Textual Studies Program.

You’ll hear from me on the Textual Studies blog and our social media accounts where I’ll be sharing UW Textual Studies news, upcoming events, and updates on faculty and student research. Don’t forget to sign up for the Textual Studies listserv and to follow us on Instagram and X to keep up-to-date on all things TXTDS.

If you have work to share or events to promote, I’d love to hear from you! You can reach me by email at nikitaw@uw.edu.

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UW Textual Studies Dawg Daze Takes Students to Special Collections

Old Books, New Technologies: Textual Studies’ Dawg Daze Event Recap

Last week, the UW Textual Studies Program welcomed new and returning students to our Dawg Daze event, “Old Books, New Technologies: UW Special Collections and the Minor in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities.” Held in the UW Libraries’ Special Collections, the event featured an overview of the minor program, a preview of upcoming Textual Studies courses from faculty, and insight from Textual Studies alums about their experience during the program and with their capstone projects.

If you didn’t get a chance to join us at Dawg Daze, don’t worry! We’re recapping the whole event and sharing some of the exciting items we viewed in Special Collections. Read on for more!

The Minor in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities

At the event, students got to hear about The Minor in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities. This interdisciplinary minor focuses on the study of the history, present, and future of texts from scrolls, manuscripts, and printed books to archival documents, digital texts, and textual data—some of which were on display during our time at Special Collections!

When pursuing the minor, students complete twenty-five credits, with at least two of the courses being from the Textual Studies Program core sequence, two courses from the Textual Studies Program’s approved electives, and a final capstone course. Now, if you’re thinking that a minor sounds like a ton of additional classes, not to worry! Many of the undergraduate students who spoke at Dawg Daze said there was quite a bit of crossover with their other degree requirements, making the completion of the minor quite manageable. 

Interested students can email text@uw.edu with any questions about the minor, its requirements, or how to declare! You can also view upcoming courses and get more information about the capstone requirement on our website.

Courses in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities

Students also got to hear from faculty teaching in the Textual Studies Program. One of the faculty members we heard from was Anna Preus, an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and the Director of the UW Humanities Data Lab. Dr. Preus teaches courses in the digital and data humanities, two interdisciplinary fields that use digital technologies and data science techniques to pursue humanities questions.

For winter, Dr. Preus and Melanie Walsh, another faculty member in the UW Textual Studies Program and an Assistant Professor in the Information School, are planning a course on Artificial Intelligence, TXTDS 321: Text Reuse, AI, and the Art of Stealing. This course will explore the concept of “text reuse” throughout literary history, putting AI text generation technologies like ChatGPT in the context of a broader lineage of literary phenomena such as allusion, quotation, remix, parody, and plagiarism. The course will use both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze text similarity, such as close reading and computational approaches. This course will count toward the minor’s elective requirements.

In spring quarter, Beatrice Arduini, Associate Professor in the French & Italian Studies Department, will teach TXTDS 220: Making Manuscripts: Manuscript and Handwriting Technologies from Antiquity to Today. This course will cover the long history of script, asking questions about the origins and lineage of communication in handwritten form. Also in spring quarter, Kathryn Medill, Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures will offer MELC 211: Introduction to Myths of the Ancient Middle East. Both of these courses will count toward the minor’s elective requirements.

The Textual Studies and Digital Humanities Minor Capstone

The TXTDS Capstone is a five-credit course (offered as TXTDS 405) that can be taken in any quarter. It is a sustained project or experience relevant to the goals of the Textual Studies Minor. During Dawg Daze, we heard from a few students who had recently completed their capstones who worked with the UW Libraries on exhibitions and completed internships with Partners in Print, a local non-profit that promotes letterpress printing. There are many options for students looking to complete their capstones. You might choose to do a traditional research paper, a digital or data-science driven project, or you might choose to undertake other kinds of work, like collaborating with faculty on research projects, or working with an organization like a library, a bookstore, or a publishing house. 

Upcoming Courses in the UW Textual Studies Program

You will declare the Minor with your major advisor. But for other advising help, contact the advisors in Humanities Academic Services, who are eager to help students enrolled in programs in the Humanities. They offer student support and advising and can help you declare and negotiate the Minor in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities. You can make an appointment or stop by the HAS center in Padleford Hall during their drop-in advising hours every Monday and Wednesday from 2:30pm to 4:00pm and every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30am to 11:00am. 

Having trouble finding HAS? No worries. Check out their walk-through video.

Thank you to all who made our Dawg Daze such a success! You can find more information about the UW Textual Studies Program, our minor and grad certificate, and our upcoming courses on our website.

Be sure to sign up for our mailing listserv to keep up to date on all UW Textual Studies news, courses, and events.

Don’t forget, you can also follow UW Textual Studies on Instagram @uwtextualstudies and on X @TextUW.

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Welcome Back UW Textual Studies Students

UW Textual Studies Program Fall Events, Upcoming Courses, and Program Information

Welcome back, UW students! Here at UW Textual Studies, we’re gearing up for another academic year! We’re looking forward to welcoming new and returning students to our undergraduate and graduate programs, and are getting ready to host some fantastic events, including our upcoming Dawg Daze information session. Read on to find out more about what UW Textual Studies has to offer for the 2024-25 academic year. 

The UW Textual Studies program offers two core programs: the Textual Studies and Digital Humanities minor and the Textual and Digital Studies grad certificate programs. The undergraduate minor focuses on the interdisciplinary study of the history, present, and future of texts. Instruction ranges widely, covering a broad array of subjects, periods, and objects in the long history of writing and communication. From scrolls to manuscripts, and printed books to eBooks, undergraduates can explore how texts have been written, published, read, circulated, and archived from antiquity to the present day. 

The Graduate Certificate in Textual and Digital Studies is a 16-credit program that draws from a diverse range of courses covered under the broad heading of textual and digital studies. From the history of the book, to the digital and data humanities, to translation, editorial, and archival theory, the graduate certificate is designed to serve a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary community of graduate students whose work spans various periods, materials, and geographies. The certificate program is perfect for those undertaking research focused on cultural and literary materials, working in archival or digital formats, or those considering careers in editing, publishing, libraries, or archives. 

Courses in the Textual Studies and Digital Humanities minor and the Textual and Digital Studies grad certificate programs include hands-on experience working with historical texts, archival materials, contemporary artists’ books, and approaches to digital editing and publishing. You can check out UW Textual Studies’ course listings for the 2024-25 academic year here and can find out more information about our minor and graduate certificate here.

Be sure to keep checking back for upcoming events and news from our UW Textual Studies blog. And join us for our Dawg Daze event, Old Books, New Technologies: UW Special Collections and the Minor in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities, on Tuesday, September 24th, at 10:30am in the Allen Library b069. Students, faculty and librarians will be on hand to talk about courses, experiences, opportunities, and to answer your questions.

Be sure to sign up for our mailing listserv to keep up to date on all UW Textual Studies news, courses, and events.

Don’t forget, you can also follow UW Textual Studies on Instagram @uwtextualstudies and on X @TextUW.

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TXTDS Minors’ Winter Capstone Projects

Congratulations to TXTDS minors Lauren Zarlingo and Ray Molinar for completing their capstone projects for the minor in winter 2024!

Lauren Zarlingo’s (Foster’24) capstone project, completed under the direction of Prof. Anna Preus (English), investigated the history of the New York Times’ coverage of New York City Ballet’s The Nutcracker.  The Nutcracker is the most widely known and performed ballet in the United States, and discussions of its portrayal of race and nationality have been growing in recent years.  She used the New York Times’ Article Search API to create a dataset of metadata about articles the Times has published about the ballet from 1954 to the present day. 

She examined the level of coverage of the ballet over time and performed sentiment analysis on the headlines.  The project particularly focused on the Chinese Tea section of the ballet and its reception in the Times; she also created a small hand-curated corpus including the full text of Times articles that discuss Chinese Tea.  In the future, she hopes to extend the project by expanding the corpus of full-text articles and exploring other ballets.

Spiegelman, A. (2011). The Complete Maus. Pantheon Books., 75; Scanned by Ray Molinar as a part of their work for The Medium is the Message exhibit at UW Special Collections.

Ray Molinar (History ’24) decided to investigate digitization and how exactly it was done. Ray worked in UW Libraries’ Special Collections with Special Projects Curator Kat Lewis. Digitization is the process and policies involved in making a digital copy of a physical object for easy access at a later date.Ray digitized various pages from graphic novels, wrote metadata for the objects following DublinCore Standards, and then made mounted physical copies of those digital objects for UW Special Collections’ exhibit: The Medium is The Message: Lived Experience is the Story. In reflection, Ray said the project was both surprisingly simple and time-consuming, but they look forward to exploring it more in the future.

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Eric Flores on his new role at the National Archives

Eric Flores recently started a position at the National Archives and Records Administration as an Archivist, after receiving his Graduate Certificate in Textual and Digital Studies in 2023. His worked on his capstone with Kenzie Brown on the Rare Books Collection in the Archdiocese of Seattle.

He shared some of his reflections on how the TDS graduate certificate helped him in his new role:

“There are a few different ways that the TDS graduate certificate helped me as an archivist. 

The first way was giving me the terminology and exposure to work with different materials: materials that I do work with on a daily basis now. It not only helps with my description work, but it also helps with preservation as well. Having a base knowledge of different textual components helps me understand how to keep materials preserved. Just as a few examples, certain papers perform better in particular preservation environments, and older iron gall inks can eat through paper meaning it’s probably best to digitize the material right away if it’s not already destroyed.

The nice thing was that the exposure I am talking about was not just through lectures. It was through hands-on teaching and going down to UW’s Special Collections. Being able to talk to experienced professionals while conducting our projects was a great way to reinforce what we learned through lecturing, and it gave us other valuable insights that we might not have had the chance to discuss during lectures. Sometimes this “hands-on” experience was not hands-on at all but flipping through a digital example of a textual work. Which made us consider how our own digitally edited materials should or could be represented.

Although creating digital materials might not be something I am actively doing in my current position, it is something that I give a lot of thought to on a daily basis. Archives are becoming more and more digital, and I do not think we, as a collective archive community, are currently representing these materials in the best possible way. So often materials are represented in clunky, outdated formats that help little in actually exploring the material. In fact, I would say they actively inhibit the use of the material due to sheer frustration. This is something that the TDS program helped me think about, and hopefully programs like the TDS program help future archivists/librarians find new ways to represent these objects. As archivists, our collections have very little value if they are not actively being used and enjoyed. We have to make sure our digital collections are useful.” – Eric Flores