Jacquelyne Thoni Howard currently teaches courses about Data Literacy, Data Visualization, Data Ethics, Surveillance and Privacy Studies, Science Communication, and History of Science and Technology Studies. Thoni Howard has also taught history and digital humanities courses in online, hybrid, and face-to-face modalities within higher education since 2012. She has also maintained certifications in social science and interdisciplinary education at the secondary level since 2006. In all of her courses, Jacquelyne works to build student-centered learning communities based on agentic co-education, care and mutual support, and critical thinking practices.
COURSES
TULANE UNIVERSITY
Introduction to Data
DATA 1010 aims to provide students with an overview to what data is, how it is used correctly and incorrectly, how it is found, stored, and managed, and how it can be used as a basis for decision making and analysis. The overall goal of this course is to increase data literacy, such that students are more confidently able to work with the increasing amounts of data in their lives, jobs, and academic careers. This course is aimed towards students in all schools and fields and has no prerequisites.
Data Visualization
Students will examine different creative and analytical theories and techniques for understanding and developing data visualizations, including maps, graphs, charts, and interactive tools such as dashboards. Students will access and clean data for visualizing potential, analyze data visualizations for bias and persuasive intent, and create data visualizations to communicate findings and tell engaging stories for diverse audiences. Students will also consider the societal role that data visualizations play in validating knowledge while exploring ethical concerns and critiques around communicating arguments visually. As practice, students will storyboard, create, peer review, and justify design choices when using a variety of open-source data visualizations. Students of all skill levels are welcome, and all data visualization skills will be taught in class.
Surveillance, Data, and Society
This seminar examines the historical and contemporary relationships between race, gender, class, and modern practices of surveillance. This course will introduce students to the interdisciplinary theories of surveillance studies such as discipline, control, capitalism, and privacy, as it relates to race, class, and gender. Students will examine readings related to enslavement, prisons, police violence, reality television, workplace surveillance, domestic violence, media, big data, travel, and drones. Seminar discussions will include cases where patriarchal power and racialized systems were used to promote perceptions of security, fear, exposure, and control. As praxis, students will use rapid response research strategies to design and produce a digital media project that uses technology tools such as maps, visualizations, textual analysis, and/or audio-visual production. These products will use New Orleans as a case study to analyze how surveillance technology is used as a form of social control or counter-surveillance tactic as it relates to concepts of race, gender, class, and power. Digital media skills will be taught in this course. All technical skill-levels are welcome.
Contagious Surveillance: A History of Public Health and Technology
This seminar examines the historical and contemporary relationships between contagions and practices of modern surveillance. This course will introduce students to the interdisciplinary theories of surveillance studies such as discipline, control, capitalism, media, and data privacy during times of crisis, as it relates to race, gender, and inclusion. Seminar discussions will include cases where patriarchal power and racialized systems were used to promote perceptions of security, fear, exposure, and control. As praxis, students will use rapid response research strategies to design and produce a digital media project that uses technology tools such as maps, visualizations, textual analysis, and/or audio-visual production. These products will analyze how surveillance technology is used during a health crisis to control bodies as it relates to concepts of race, gender, and power. Digital media skills will be taught in this course. All technical skill levels are welcome. 3 credits.
Digital Scholarship
This course examines practices for designing research communications across a variety of digital mediums. It also examines how gender, often intersecting with race, class, and sexuality, affects the interpretation of research in digital forums and the treatment of researchers online. This interdisciplinary course will engage in a variety of fields including data visualization, digital media practices, technology studies, gender studies, and digital scholarship. Seminar discussions will include examining creative methods for developing digital research projects, ethical considerations when promoting research through digital mediums, and critically analyzing computational methods in research that supports social justice and gender/racial equity. As praxis, students will design, storyboard, create, peer review, revise and present digital research products that include visual, audio, and narrative components. All technical skill levels are welcome.
American Families in Historical Perspective
This course examines how American understandings of family have changed from colonial times through the present. This course will explore the family as a political, economic, social, and cultural institution and question how shifting conceptions of the role of the state has affected family life in America. Readings, discussions, and writing assignments will focus on the purposes that different types of families served in U.S. history and the way family formation and ideas of the family have been shaped by ideas connected to citizenship and belonging; race and ethnicity; masculinity and work; slavery and labor; consumer culture and technology; sexuality, childrearing and childlessness/freeness. Students will also analyze primary sources and historical debates to explore these histories using frameworks of race, gender, and sexuality. This course can be used to fulfill the Tier II writing requirement.
FEMtech: Gender and Technology Design
Since the industrial era, analog, digital, and medical products have been produced with the claim that certain technologies make women’s lives easier. This course examines the role that FEMtech plays in women’s lives and the role that product design plays in shaping discourse around women’s relationship with technology. Students will also explore the recent rise of FEMtech app technology, a projected $120 billion-dollar industry. Students will have the opportunity to learn about the technology and start-up industries from technology leaders in New Orleans. Students will use feminist technology design strategies to design and pitch a FEMtech product. This is a 1 credit hour course.
History and Philosophy of Women in Higher Education (cotaught with Dr. Aidan Smith)
This course examines the social and political history of higher education with special emphasis on the transformation of women and the college landscape from the 19th century to present day. Using a historical framework to generate and answer questions about college women today, we will analyze the social and political culture of various decades and its influence on college culture, women’s colleges, women in college, and narratives about college life. We will take into consideration the various legislative, political, economic, cultural, and academic influences on the university system to understand the changing role of women in higher education.
History of Native American Women: Resilience and Resistance
This course examines the diverse experiences of Indigenous people, specifically women, in what is now the United States from pre-European contact to the twentieth century. It will introduce students to theories and methods within the history of Indigenous peoples, Borderlands history, intersectional feminism, and post-colonial studies. Students will explore the themes of resilience and resistance as it relates to indigenous women’s responses to settler colonialism, family and kinship, tribal sovereignty, and social movements/activism. We will also analyze primary sources and historical debates to explore these histories using frameworks of race, gender, and sexuality.
Feminist Epistemologies and Research Design (cotaught with Dr. Clare Daniel)
In this course, students will read and discuss key texts that outline philosophies and methods of feminist knowledge production. Students will engage with foundational feminist epistemologies, such as standpoint theory, situated knowledges, and intersectionality, to understand the complex relationships between gender, race, class, and other categories that shape the distribution of power both within and outside the academy. They will explore research methods across fields while examining important debates about a researcher’s role and responsibilities to her/his/their subjects and the public. Research ethics regarding data collection, interpretation, and dissemination will be discussed through the lens of feminist and antiracist commitments.
Digital History
This course will examine the production of knowledge and how knowledge production processes related to the practice of communicating historical thinking through digital modalities. Students will develop their expertise in the theories and tools of digital historical scholarship while exploring special history topics relating to gender and culture. This course will also cover ethical considerations when constructing digital history projects and debates surrounding the field of digital humanities within academia. Students will learn how to use digital tools to convey historical thinking such as mapping, storytelling, archiving, and data visualization.
Seeking Knowledge: How Various Disciplines Recognize Truth (with Dr. Clare Daniel)
This course will examine knowledge production through discussion and exploration of the research process. It will also attend to the question of how gender and other identities intersect with the processes of research, knowledge production, and becoming a scholar. Readings, class discussions, and guest lectures will provide Scholars with the opportunity to engage with interdisciplinary perspectives, connect with Tulane faculty, and begin to develop their own identities as scholars.
Decolonizing Feminisms (Tulane University’s Pre-College Program)
This seminar explores the histories and issues surrounding women’s rights and feminist movements, especially those of Indigenous, Latina, and Black women, using frameworks of race, gender, class, and sexuality. Through films, media, and key texts, students will be encouraged to develop critical reading and analytical skills as they explore arguments for including Intersectional feminism, Native feminisms, and trans-national feminisms into contemporary mainstream discourse. Seminar discussions will include cases where colonialism, capitalism, heteropatriarchal power, and racialized systems were used to position the issues important to some groups of women over the needs of other women. Students will examine specific calls to action for using various forms of feminisms to empower and address the issues that affect marginalized groups.
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY
Understanding Historical Change: Middle East History
Introduction to the nature and methods of historical study and the examination of specific topics essential for understanding the history of the Middle East and North Africa from the rise of Islam in the mid-7th century AD until the end of the 20th. The region is defined to include all of the Arab worlds from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east as well as Iran, Turkey, and Israel. The course provides strong background preparation for more advanced courses in Middle East history.
Understanding Historical Change: US History
Introduction to the nature and methods of historical study and examination of specific topics focusing on significant periods in the development of the U.S. and considering them in the light of certain elements shaping that history. Among these elements are the constitutional and political system; and the society’s ideals, structure, economic policy, and world outlook. Topics range from the Colonial Era through the Spanish American War.
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE – ASIA
US History to 1865
A survey of the United States from colonial times to the end of the Civil War. The establishment and development of national institutions are traced. The aim is to locate, evaluate, and use primary and secondary sources and interpret current events and ideas in a historical context. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: HIST 156 or HUMN 119.
US History Since 1865
A survey of economic, intellectual, political, and social developments since the Civil War. The rise of industry and the emergence of the United States as a world power are emphasized.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY SCHOOLS – BROWN MARGE MIDDLE SCHOOL
Environmentality (Social Studies, Technology, and Science)
Through this stream, students will become aware of environmental concerns and issues which affect their lives and world. Environmental topics that will be investigated are solid waste, hazardous waste, biodiversity and endangered species, quality of air, sources of energy and preservation of wetlands. Lessons focusing on environmental citizenship will inform students of ways to become actively involved in promoting a safe world environment. In addition, students will explore the tensions that sometimes exist between environmental safety and economic development. Stream activities will develop knowledge and skills in the following areas: English and language arts, including literature, composition, speech, debate and drama; social studies, including history, civics, and sociology; science, including biology and chemistry; mathematics, including statistics, percentages, and basic computations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; art, including drawing, layout, and design; research skills, including notetaking and summarizing. Proposed field trips are a tour of a landfill and a tour of a wetlands area.
Bridges (Social Studies, Technology, and Science)
Students learn about various aspects of engineering, construction, environmental impact, and even government as they relate to the building of bridges and other public works projects. They will discover how bridges are not just physical but can be a metaphor for the connections between groups and individuals throughout the world. Students will work with peers to design and implement a public works project here at school, including bridges similar to the ones seen on campus
Global Awareness (Social Studies)
The Global Awareness Stream focuses on the study of global issues and the global decision-making processes for addressing them. Issues such as poverty, human rights, health and disease, hunger, war and conflict, population, and environment are investigated through studies in history, geopolitics, economics, mathematics, physical sciences, and social studies. Using this basis of knowledge, students become involved with analysis and creative problem-solving in relation to such current international issues. Cultural understanding is developed through activities in global arts and crafts, cultural mythology, global gardening, telecommunications, and foreign language study.
Wake Up, America! (Social Studies)
This stream introduces students to the knowledge, skills and values of responsible citizenship as they analyze and solve real school and community problems. The unit begins with an investigation of the concepts of freedom, civic responsibility, and civic participation, as well as a development of the understanding of the importance of accessing and managing information. Identifying and addressing an issue of local, state, or national concern promotes research skills, media literacy, graphic arts and use of technology in addition to traditional content areas such as language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. Writing and enacting a local, state, or national law involves an additional focus on constitutional history, structure and operation of governmental bodies, and economics. Evaluation, critical thinking, problem solving, and participation skills are an integral part of this stream throughout its activities and simulations. The goal is to prepare students for informed, responsible participation in political life as competent citizens committed to the fundamental values and principles of American constitutional democracy.
Your Greatest Performance – Life! (Writing and Creative Communication)
The performing arts are an exciting way for students to get to know themselves, involve themselves with others, to take safe risks, and to actively participate in activities which will help them respond to the world around them. Self-confidence, belief in one’s worth and abilities as a person, is the key to success. In order to explore who they are and their place in their world, students will participate in classes that include creative and expository writing, literature studies, name research, core values exploration, wellness activities, and a study of genetics. Other classes in dance, drama, music, geometry, patterns and spatial relations, social studies, and world history will prepare students to participate in the performing arts activities planned for the stream.