Life is full of connections!
Networks are a particular kind of data that look deceptively simple. Human lives are full of relationships with others, and communities and identities are often defined through relationships between people. But how do we understand these connections historically, and how do we analyze them?
In this module, we will:
- Think about what a network is and how we find network data
- Think about what networks can and can’t tell us
- Work with the basics of analyzing and visualizing network data
Reading
Everyone
- The Wisdom And/Or Madness of Crowds
- Using Metadata to Find Paul Revere
- Following Up on Paul Revere
- Mapping Shakespeare’s Tragedies
- Maeve Kane, All One People
Grad
- Maeve Kane, “For Wagrassero’s Son: Colonialism and the Structure of Indigenous Women’s Social Connections, 1690–1730.” The Journal of Early American History. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1163/18770703-00702002 [Not available through UAlbany, please download PDF]
- Robert Michael Morrissey, “Archives of Connection.” Historical Methods, 48:2 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2014.962208
Watch
Tasks
- Do the Networks Colab assignment
- Do the Networks Observable assignment