[AI Summary]: Brandon Walsh from UVA Scholars’ Lab presents a pedagogical exercise for teaching digital humanities students how to scope projects effectively. The “Up, Down, Lateral Project Scoping” method helps students practice modifying project ideas in three dimensions: scaling up (making bigger/more ambitious), scaling down (making smaller/more focused), and shifting laterally (changing method or object of study while maintaining core interests). Using recipes as a neutral example topic, the exercise demonstrates how any project idea can be transformed through these movements to become more feasible while respecting the original research goals.
- Author: Brandon Walsh
- Institution: UVA Scholars’ Lab
- Date: October 21, 2025
- License: CC-BY 4.0