ENGL 114: Rhetoric of Data
Today no concept more directly guides the way we move through the world than that of data. The way we choose to watch a movie, find an article for a research paper, like a friend’s post on social media or even get the answer to a question are all fundamentally shaped by the principles of data. ENGL 114: The Rhetoric of Data brings together rhetorical theory and digital humanities to explore how the notion of data came to shape so much of contemporary human life. Rhetoric is much more than logos, pathos and ethos. It is the complex system of communicating that we use to generate meaning, which includes extracting knowledge from data as a form of persuasion. As such, rhetorical analysis helps us understand how arguments are made with data as well as how many of us become comfortable with giving so much of our own data away.
The course begins with an exploration of concepts in data studies and then moves to applying these concepts in a hands-on project in which students will work to document and analyze local history through a partnership with the Marian Cheek Jackson Center. The Jackson Center is dedicated to promoting community in historically Black neighborhoods in the Northside of Chapel Hill. Part of their mission to preserve history includes an oral history project, From the Rock Wall.
Students in ENGL 114 are key collaborators on From the Rock Wall to Wikipedia, creating Wikipedia pages and Wikidata dedicated to key historical sites in the Northside area. Because of the linking structure, the frequent updates, and the great semantic markup, Wikipedia (and the Wikidata that sits behind it) almost always ranks high in search engines. Therefore, by creating these Wikipedia pages for the Jackson Center, we will help to make their information more visible. Through this effort, we will directly explore and analyze power structures within Wikipedia through different types of data analytics. To see Wikipedia pages students in past versions of ENGL 114 have produced in collaboration with the DLC Lab, Jackson Center Staff, and community feedback, follow this link. If you’re interested in learning more about the From the Rock Wall to Wikipedia project and its impact, click here.