Unit name | Arts in the Age of Data |
---|---|
Unit code | AFAC20007 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Dr. James Freeman |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Arts Faculty Office |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Twenty-first century society is awash with data. Whether collected by governments, technology companies, or individuals, we produce and interact with vast quantities of numerical information about almost every aspect of our lives. Indeed, the vastness of the data collected and our increasing reliance on it to make decisions has led some to claim that we are living through ‘the age of data’.
Yet this turn towards data has a much longer history, and the disciplines that make up the Liberal Arts have been just as affected by it as the social and physical sciences. This unit therefore encourages students to understand and contextualise recent developments as part of a longer story in which societies and Liberal Arts subjects both turned to quantification and revealed the limits of what we can know through data alone.
Students will primarily explore these issues by constructing their own data-based projects. They will have the opportunity to work in small groups with a tutor on projects which assemble a dataset and then use basic data science skills to answer research questions and visualise their findings.
The unit aims:
By the end of the unit students will be able to:
Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous activities, including lecture content, interactive sessions, data challenges, and supporting activities for project work. Students will be expected to participate on a weekly basis. There will be opportunities for tutor and peer feedback.
Data challenges (Pass/Fail) [ILOs 2, 3 and 5]
Group Infographic (40%) [ILOs 2, 3, 4]
Individual 2,000-word Project Report (60%) [ILOs 1, 4, 5]
Brignell, J.E. (2000) Sorry, wrong number!: the abuse of numbers. Stockbridge: Brignell Associates
Crook, T. and O’Hara, G., (ed.) (2011) Statistics and the public sphere: numbers and the people in modern Britain, c.1800-2000. London: Routledge
Freeman, M. (2010) Quantitative skills for historians. Warwick: Higher Education Academy
Hudson, P. (2000) History by numbers: an introduction to quantitative approaches. London: Edward Arnold