ma in digital humanities
TRANSCRIPT
An introduction to the MA in Digital Humanities at King’s College London
Paul SpenceSenior Lecturer and Programme Convenor for MA in Digital HumanitiesDepartment of Digital Humanities, King’s College London
Webinar recorded in London, 18 May 2015
15/04/2023 06:18 PM ENC Public Talk 19 February 2013 1
MA in Digital Humanities: Overview
How we create and disseminate knowledge in a digital, mobile and networked age
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Critical perspective on digital theory and practice in studying human culture
The history and current state of the digital humanities
modelling … curating …
analysing … interpreting …
Computers, human culture, critical query
How do we model human culture using computers? And how can we create memory and knowledge environments which facilitate new insights or new ways of working with the human record?How does the ethos of openness which the internet encourages – open access, open data – influence the knowledge economy?In what ways is digital culture changing concepts of authorship, editing and publication?Can we use big data techniques to further humanities research in an era of information overload?What is the place of coding in our digital interactions with cultural heritage?
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What are the Digital Humanities?
The Digital Humanities combine the practical creation of digital objects and resources with critical reflection on the new questions and opportunities which this provokes
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What is the role of the digital humanities in discussions around the future of the humanities, academic scholarship, and knowledge production?
What makes MADH at KCL unique?
• One of the leading programmes of its kind, housed in one of the field’s largest and most prestigious centres/departments in digital humanities– Long tradition of research in the Digital Humanities, going back to the early 1970s– Strong performance in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2014: http://
www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/ddh/newsrecords/2014/Digital-Humanities-CMCI-REF-zxz.aspx
• Teaching programmes from undergraduate to PhD level– BA in Digital Culture– MA programmes in Digital Humanities, Digital Culture & Society, Digital Asset and
Media Management, and Digital Curation– PhD in Digital Humanities– http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/ddh/study/index.aspx
• Connections with cultural heritage partners– British Library, Shakespeare Globe Theatre, National Gallery, British Museum, Tate
Gallery, The National Archives, Imperial War Museum, Courtauld Institute etc.
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What makes MADH at KCL unique?
Fifteen years of highly innovative digital humanities collaborations in a dynamic and world-leading research department
• Close collaborations with other humanities researchers (including History, Classics, English and Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies) at KCL, and beyond
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City Witness projecthttp://www.medievalswansea.ac.uk/(Southampton, Queen’s University Belfast and King’s College London)
Out of the Wingshttp://www.outofthewings.org/(King’s College London, Queen’s University Belfast and Oxford)
Academic Book of the Futurehttp://academicbookfuture.org/ (partnership with UCL)
What makes MADH at KCL unique?
The Department's research has generated over 5 million digital objects freely available in 107 online web resources for open public access, with more than 200 million hits between 2008 and 2013; most of our work is planned for dissemination to an audience that extends far beyond universities. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/ddh/research/index.aspx
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transformationalinnovative
public engagement
connection to Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums
digital scholarship
Structure
MA in Digital Humanities is a 180-credit postgraduate programme leading to a Master of Arts qualification. Students take:
• Core Module - 40 credits (full year) • Introduction to Digital Humanities
• Optional Module - 20 credits each; in total 80 credits• Web Technologies• Editorial Models for Digital Texts: Theory & Practice• Digital Publishing• Communication and Consumption of Cultural Heritage• Open Source, Open Access, Open Culture• Maps, Apps and the GeoWeb: Introduction to the Spatial Humanities• Internship/Digital Humanities in the workplaceYou can also choose any optional module from our other MAs programmes. See http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/ddh/study/pgt/optional2014-5.aspx for indicative list
• Dissertation - 60 credits
Core content: Introduction to Digital Humanities
The programme includes the core module ‘Introduction to Digital Humanities’:
• We analyse key research themes in the digital humanities
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digital curationbig data in the humanitiesgeospatial narrativesmodern software creationdigital ‘making’
electronic markupdigital publishingcollaboration & crowdsourcingstructured data/semantic webdigital literaturematerial culture
• Students gain practical grounding in programming skills relevant to the digital humanities, learn how to create digital resources and articulate complex research questions involving digital technology
Core content: dissertation
The other core content is a 10 to 15,000 word dissertation:• theoretical or practical• allows students to explore the implications of applying information
technology to their own area of research
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Recent example topics:• If Marco Polo had a blog. A study of travel publishing in the digital age• Visualizing the New Woman• How to control the quality of Cyberliterature works: a case study in
China• The Acropolis Museum and its digital engagement• How to make digital transcriptions of traditional Chinese calligraphy• The future of books: digital publishing in the new media age• Space and time in modern manuscript editing• Digital forays in the incipit of some short stories by Henry James• Fingerprinting specific sounds within the soundscape
Web Technologies (Optional)
This module explores how the World Wide Web has transformed the way in which people create and discover knowledge; disseminate ideas, communicate their opinions; and ask fresh questions. It is also highly practical. Students learn:• web standards (HTML 5 and CSS) and imaging techniques to create
innovative and user-focused web content• theory of current techniques like responsive design for different devices• how to perform user-focused requirements analysis; plan and manage web
development; design and test interface prototypes; implement content-rich web resources from inception to final publication.
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Communication and Consumption of Cultural Heritage(Optional)
• This module explores the representation and reception of cultural heritage in the context of digital research, education and entertainment, looking at how museums and other memory institutions create and frame knowledge in the digital world. We examine:– the theoretical and practical ways in which digital approaches enable our
understanding of past cultures, behaviours and environments– historical and contemporary material culture, “intangible cultural heritage”
such as festivals or oral traditions– the artefacts of space and geography– the subjectivities of our record of cultural heritage, including the biases
inherent in gender, postcolonial culture and academic privilege.
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Editorial models for Digital Texts: Theory and Practice (Optional)
• This module is a practically-oriented introduction to technologies used to model and publish digital humanities texts, notably XML, TEI and XSLT. These technologies support a dynamic view of text: whereas word processors create static texts that are identical to their presentation, dynamic texts can be presented in many ways, and lend themselves better to querying and mining.
• The module also provides students with a theoretical understanding of the issues and implications in the use of text encoding methodologies for cultural heritage texts.
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Open Source, Open Access, Open Culture(Optional)
• Open source, open access, open culture are ideas and movements born in the digital age and founded on the new possibilities of digital work and communication. – They offer a practical path to two ideals: making knowledge work for
everyone, making culture democratic. What are the social practices that make open approaches work? Are they destined to occupy one corner of the digital world, or will they become the norm?
• This module analyses open approaches from numerous perspectives: – legal (concepts of ownership, history of intellectual property), social
(collaboration, publication, publicity)– political (access to and exploitation of knowledge)– technical (distribution and software support for collective work).
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Digital Publishing (Optional)
Transformations in publishing (roles, methodologies & business practices) as a result of digital culture & technologyWe study numerous digital publications and evaluate their target audience, design, usability, and marketing strategy.We explore:• the differences between digital and print• the impact of user-generated content and social media• the impact of digital culture on the act of reading• eReaders and eBooks• the effect of mass digitisation (including Google Books); challenges in publishing• open access and intellectual property• the future of publishing.
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Maps, Apps and the GeoWeb: Introduction to the Spatial Humanities (Optional)
• From 2015 we will offer a new module providing an Introduction to the Spatial Humanities, which concerns how maps and geography are made on the web, why these have become so important in the last ten to fifteen years, and what kind of critical approaches we need to adopt to the assumptions that online geographic data contains. It includes:
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• a brief overview of the history of mapmaking from the earliest times until the present day, focusing on how and why the World Wide Web has come to be cartography's dominant paradigm.
• analysis of how geographic information from history, archaeology and cultural heritage is organized using digital gazetteers, and how it relates to time periods and events.
• Examination of the ways in which geographic data is approached in heritage crowdsourcing ('Volunteered Geographic Information'), and how geography features in literary and textual analysis.
Internship module (Optional)
• Finally, all students have the opportunity to take our internship module, which allows students to gain work experience and develop skills which both allow them– to see the ideas we explore in class working in practice– and are highly marketable for their future careers
• One of the great things about studying in London is that you’re surrounded by media and cultural organisations– Past internships have been with publishers, digital marketing companies and
cultural heritage organisations– And there are always opportunities to work on the department’s own research
projects. • Recent examples include research on
– Mobile digital scholarly editions– SNAP:DRAGN project, looking at standards for networking Data and Relations in
Greco-Roman Names across heterogeneous systems and formats
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What have students gone on to do?
• One of main outcomes of course is to be able to think critically with a computer and many students have gone on to apply knowledge acquired on the MA in their own research– Like Ernesto Miranda, a former student whose project assignment on the
MA led to the creation a digital edition of the Codex Mendoza - a 16th-century manuscript that is now one of the most important sources on Mexico’s pre-Hispanic culture.
– The Digital Codex Mendoza is now freely available both online and as an app on the iTunes store has received international attention in the press (New York Times)
– http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/ddh/newsrecords/2015/codex-mendoza.aspx
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PhD in Digital Humanitieshttp://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/ddh/study/pgr/index.aspx
Careers/Post-MADH study opportunities
• The MA provides students with experience in many of the new roles and activities emerging as a result of digital culture, both in research and professional contexts
• Typical careers after completing MADH: publishing, digital media, internet companies and academia
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From interview with Hannah Jacobs/ Multimedia Analyst at the Wired! Lab for Digital Art History and Visual Culture at Duke University:
How do you think your degree has helped with your career so far?Immensely. At the most basic level, the MA Digital Humanities program empowered me to discover for myself all the possibilities of a digital tool and to exploit it, rather than remaining subservient to it as a passive user. It gave me a great foundation in computing (from a humanities perspective) that drives how I work and think in my job every day.http://blogs.thecareersgroup.co.uk/humanities/case-study-multimedia-analyst-in-digital-art-history-and-visual-culture/
Why study MADH at KCL?
• One of the oldest MAs in DH in the world, taught by a dynamic and experienced team.
• A multi-disciplinary and international makeup and outlook both among staff and students, with opportunities to “learn from experiences of partners in institutions across Europe, US, India, China and elsewhere”
• A vibrant PG student society• Students are encouraged to take part in departmental seminars and other
events
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Learning outcomes
By studying MADH you will engage directly with this body of experience, and get a critical but also intensely practical, hands-on perspective on the digital humanitiesOn completing the MA, you will:• Have a broad understanding of the most important applications of digital
methods & technologies to humanities research questions and their affordances/limitations.
• Be able to scope, build and critique practical experiments in digital research with an arts, humanities and cultural sector focus.
• Be able to provide critical commentary on the relationship between creativity, digital technology & the study of human culture.
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Contact:Paul Spence
Department of Digital HumanitiesKing’s College [email protected]