First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminar: Data: A History

Catalog description

We live in an era of “Big Data.” From smartwatches and social media to credit scoring and baseball analytics, our lives, government, and business are enmeshed in “Big Data.” But what, if anything, is new about “Big Data” in the twenty-fist century? This course explores this question by examining the “datafication” of American society from the nineteenth century to the present day. We will consider what data is, investigating the theoretical premise that data is made, rather than simply out there, existing as “raw data,” as well as delve deeper into different episodes in U.S. history where the large-scale production, management, and use of information has drastically altered Americans daily life. Readings will feature primary source texts including naturalist Samuel George Morton’s Crania Americana (1839), nineteenth-century credit reports, black journalist Ida B. Wells’ Southern Horror (1892), turn-of-the-twentieth-century maps, Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times (1936), and Robert and Helen Lynd’s sociological study Middletown (1929). To put these and other primary sources into context, we will also read works from history, sociology, philosophy, media studies, and the digital humanities.