Digital Studies is an interdisciplinary concentration at Grinnell College.
In the Grinnell context, a concentration is like a minor, in that it complements a student’s major area of study by giving structure to a set of courses. Unlike traditional minors in a single department or discipline, however, a Grinnell concentration encourages students to work across disciplines, to gain different kinds of knowledge and skills, and finally to integrate that breadth into a final project or inquiry.
The Digital Studies concentrators study the digital practices and cultures that shape scholarly research, creative production, and increasingly large areas of everyday life. The concentration aims especially to support thinking and activities that cross disciplinary boundaries, such as developing digital techniques for the creation of art or music, bringing critical theory to bear on digital cultures, or investigating the powers and limitations of algorithmic approaches to textual evidence. Digital Studies concentrators engage with new research questions arising from digital cultures and methods, creatively employ digital tools and media, and develop the skills that constitute twenty-first century digital literacies.
