Digital Studies Minor

Digital technology is an inescapable component of our 21st-century lives, revolutionizing how we communicate, vote, buy, create, and learn. It’s the water we’re all swimming in.

The Digital Studies minor equips students to analyze and understand digital content in all of its forms. You will walk away knowing how to program, code, edit, and create digital media. Our experienced faculty will also challenge you to think critically, use collaborative inquiry, and become an effective communicator.

Through generous funding from the W.M. Keck Foundation, this Digital Studies minor provides a one-of-a-kind curriculum, integrating humanities and computer science. We are here to prepare you for a career in the technology sector.

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Curriculum

Degree Requirements

The idea for a minor in Digital Studies within the School of Liberal Arts grew out of the recognition that the dramatic change brought about by the digital revolution in areas such as communication, culture, art, commerce, and education necessitated a more formal lens of investigation of the contemporary world. Foundational to this conversation is the very question itself of the role of the liberal arts in the 21st century, including the signature hallmarks of a liberal education-critical thinking, collaborative inquiry, and the ability to effectively communicate. The Digital Studies minor is open to all students. The program’s curriculum provides the requisite tools for critical analysis of how “the digital” frames human discourse, while simultaneously developing a technical understanding of how digital media and content are produced and delivered in order to prepare students for careers in the technology sector.

Learning Outcomes

1: Ability to analyze the digital environment toward the end of becoming a digital citizen
2: Ability to analyze the digital environment (technically and culturally) through shared inquiry and collaborative learning
3: Ability to understand and utilize digital media production tools (video, audio, images, graphics, interactivity)
4: Ability to understand and utilize principles of digital programming (HTML5, CSS5, and Python)
5: Ability to understand and utilize project management tools and skills toward the creation of digital artifacts
6: Ability to understand and utilize critical thinking for the analysis of digital information and its application in the contemporary age
7: Ability to produce and conceptualize through assignments and activities digital bases art within a critical-theoretical framework
8: Ability to investigate through assignments and activities digital concepts within historical cultural and societal contexts
9: Ability to investigate through assignments and activities the dialogic relationships between digital culture and technology
10: Ability to investigate and analyze through assignments and activities the attributes and the effects of "big data" on culture and society, and develop skills and strategies for effective data management