Course Overview
This course reimagines text encoding as a critical, community-centered, and decolonial practice. Moving beyond TEI’s traditional applications, it examines how encoding choices shape knowledge production, reinforce or challenge power structures, and amplify — or silence — marginalized voices. Through hands-on exercises and real-world case studies, participants will engage with Indigenous research methodologies, antiracist markup strategies, ethical metadata design, and the complexities of archival silences.
The course also explores strategies for encoding multilingual texts, queer and disability-centered narratives, and texts that otherwise resist linearity and normativity. Learners will discover how TEI can support work in the environmental humanities, critique neoliberal digital paradigms, facilitate collaborative research, and foster inclusive pedagogy. Ultimately, TEI is approached here as a tool for resistance, accessibility, and relational accountability — transforming encoding into a more equitable and care-based digital humanities practice.
General Information
This course is completely free and open to all, but requires a free registration to access materials and track progress. It is designed for anyone interested in scholarly editing using TEI, and no prior experience with TEI is required. For those already familiar with TEI, Module 1 offers a broad overview that can be skimmed or skipped, as the course quickly progresses into more critical and advanced frameworks.
Gamification features such as points, badges, and progress tracking are available to enhance motivation, but participation in quizzes, live coding practice, and other assessments is entirely optional. Learners are encouraged to move through the course at their own pace and skip activities or lessons that don’t serve their needs.
This course is designed with accessibility in mind. Lessons are screen reader–friendly, based on semantic markup, and provide alt text wherever possible. While coding activities include visual elements, alternative formats and guidance are available. Click here to read the full Accessibility Statement. If you encounter any barriers, we welcome feedback to help improve access for everyone.
Curriculum
- 13 Sections
- 71 Lessons
- Lifetime
- Module 1: The BasicsBuild a strong foundation in TEI by learning its core structure, syntax, and key elements.11
- 1.11.1: What is TEI?
- 1.21.1: Quick Quiz3 Questions
- 1.31.2: TEI-XML and Intelligent Search
- 1.41.2: Quick Quiz3 Questions
- 1.51.3: Setting Up Your TEI Workspace
- 1.61.3: Quick Quiz3 Questions
- 1.71.4: TEI Document Structure & Key Elements
- 1.81.4: Quick Quiz3 Questions
- 1.91.5: Genre-Specific Encoding
- 1.101.5: Quick Quiz3 Questions
- 1.11Live Coding Exercise: TEI Metadata
- Module 2: Critical Encoding PracticesExplore how text encoding reflects systems of power and how critical approaches can challenge biases in metadata and markup.4
- Module 3: Decolonial TEI EncodingUncover colonial legacies in encoding practices and implement ethical frameworks for attribution, consent, and cultural specificity.5
- Module 4: Cultural Knowledge and Editorial ResponsibilityInterrogate editorial neutrality, embrace relational responsibility, and center community protocols in your encoding decisions.6
- 4.14.1: Disrupting Editorial Neutrality
- 4.24.2: Archival Silences: Encoding Absence and Refusal
- 4.34.3: Cultural Protocols and Community Authority
- 4.44.4: Relational Responsibility Beyond Attribution
- 4.54.5: Ethics in Metadata: Naming, Identity, and Consent
- 4.64.6: Encoding Epistemologies and Resisting Eurocentric Taxonomies
- Module 5: Antiracist Markup StrategiesDevelop strategies for addressing racial bias, linguistic marginalization, and whitewashed textual representations in TEI.5
- Module 6: Encoding Language Diversity and MultilingualismAddress linguistic injustice by encoding diverse, non-standard, and community-centered languages in respectful and effective ways.5
- Module 7: Queer Perspectives and Markup Beyond the BinaryApply queer theory to encoding practices by exploring fluidity, nonlinear narratives, and resistance to binary structures.5
- Module 8: Cripping TEI: Encoding Disability, Neurodivergence, and AccessCenter disabled and neurodivergent experiences in encoding through principles of care, multimodality, and temporal disruption.6
- 8.18.1: Disability Studies, Crip Theory, and Digital Normativity
- 8.28.2: Disability Representation: Visibility, Consent, and Power
- 8.38.3: TEI Elements and Critical Metadata for Representing Disability
- 8.48.4: Crip Time, Temporal Disruption, and Nonlinearity
- 8.58.5: Multimodal and Access-Centered Encoding
- 8.68.6: Care, Access, and Responsibility
- Module 9: Nonlinear, Fluid, and Ambiguous TextsLearn to represent polyvocal, performative, and evolving texts that defy traditional textual boundaries and require ethical flexibility.7
- 9.29.1: Challenging Linearity: Encoding Fluid and Living Narratives
- 9.39.2: Encoding Ambiguity, Multiplicity, and Uncertainty
- 9.49.3: Multi-Voiced and Polyphonic Texts
- 9.59.4: Spatial, Visual, and Performative Texts
- 9.69.5: Care-Centered Strategies for Encoding Complex Texts
- 9.79.6: Embodied Knowledge: Encoding Performance, Gesture, and Sensory Texts
- Module 10: Markup for Change: Encoding Embodiment, Equity, and EnvironmentEngage with affect, trauma, resistance, and environmental justice to explore how markup can become a form of advocacy and healing.6
- 10.110.1: Encoding Affect, Embodiment, and Intuitive Knowledge
- 10.210.2: Trauma and Loss: Encoding Silences and Difficult Histories
- 10.310.3: Resistance and Alternative Literacies
- 10.410.4: TEI and Environmental Humanities
- 10.510.5: Anti-Neoliberal TEI: Encoding Beyond Efficiency, Ownership, and Commodification
- 10.610.6: Data Justice and Encoding Against Surveillance
- Module 12: Teaching with TEI: Composition, Code, and Critical ReadingDesign inclusive, multimodal, and critical pedagogy strategies using TEI as a tool for close reading, authorship, and data ethics.6
- Module 11: From Authority to Accountability: Collaborative Approaches to TEIShift from single-author control to collective responsibility through equitable workflows and shared encoding practices.5
- Module 13: Beyond Encoding: Analyzing & Visualizing TEI DataTranslate encoded data into stories, visualizations, and public-facing scholarship while attending to ethical data practices.6
Instructor
