I have an idea for a research project that brings together visual images – paintings and magazine and book covers – the written (archive) correspondence between collectors, galleries, and museums that tie them together, and the scholarship (and popular writing) that has been done on both.  It has to do with pulp magazines and novels of the early 20th century.  I’m thinking of turning this into a course where students (undergraduate) help with original research and writing, and ultimately publication – traditional book form or not – of all this.  I need help getting started – how to shape this into an ongoing project.

As a department chair with faculty who are curious, yet tentative, about how to begin DH projects in their classes, I wonder if there are fellow campers who might want to share some ideas about “baby steps” to get faculty jazzed about what they can do with their students.  How to best determine the kinds of projects to whet the appetite – when to use timelines, or concept maps, or GIS, or whatever – where the learning curve, just to get started, is quick and can help to build the enthusiasm.