The Master of Science in Digital Humanities helps graduates from Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences programmes to develop digital competencies that will allow them to add digital dimensions to their own domain expertise. It aims to explicitly link these competencies to research questions, case studies and applications related to the domain expertise of the students.
Graduates of this programme will be able to bring their own domain expertise to a significantly higher level of functionality, using digital tools and techniques. Building both on the expertise they obtained from the programme and their prior expertise in Humanities, Social or Behavioral Sciences, graduates will be well placed to open many new digital applications to a much wider community. Moreover, those who wish to move to a professional profile involving more advanced digital competencies, are well prepared to do so.
The programme is organized around a number of clusters of course units. The central clusters are the Application Domains cluster and the Tools for the Digital World cluster. Supporting clusters are the Introductory Digitization Components cluster, the Advanced Digitization Components cluster and the Management Component. The heart of the research activities is situated in the Master’s thesis.
The Master’s Programme is conceived as a one year, international and multidisciplinary advanced master programme (master-after-master). The programme is unique in Flanders and one of only a few in Europe. The programme is firmly framed in an explicit collaboration between the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Sciences - Department of Computer Science. As such, it is supported by experts in Digital Humanities applications, who supply research expertise for the programme, as well as by experts in digital techniques and tools, who provide a sound technical basis for the students.
Digitization affects in many ways how future scientists in Humanities and Behavioural Sciences will conduct their research. Also, graduates from Humanities and Behavioural Sciences programs enter a professional world in which digitization becomes the standard, be it in publishing, arts, libraries, teaching and many others.
The Master of Science in Digital Humanities program aims to prepare graduates from Humanities and Behavioural Sciences programs for these challenges. It aims to help such graduates to develop digital competencies that will allow them to add digital dimensions to their own domain expertise. It aims to explicitly link this knowledge and these competencies to case studies and applications related to the domain expertise of the students. It will train them to master information structures and functionalities of data, programming structures and technique to produce scripts for digital applications, tools for improving access and interactive use of data and the development of new digital applications. It will train them how to manage projects related to digitization and introduce them to emerging new digital technologies and their applications.
As an advanced master program (master-after master), it is assumed that the students entering this program have already achieved the general academic competencies defined for any master's program. Nevertheless, it is also within the aims of the program to further strengthen these competencies, within the specific context that Digital Humanities offers.
More specifically, graduates understand the basics of Digital Humanities, databases and query languages, scripting languages, the role of IT in management and of some of the emerging technologies in Digital Humanities. They are able to formulate research goals, determine trajectories that achieve these goals, collect and select information relevant to achieve the research goals and interpret collected information on the basis of a critical research attitude. They are able to communicate scientifically. They are able to model a database and use SQL, to use a scripting language, to apply tools for Digital Humanities and to study applications in Digital Humanities. They have the attitudes of valuing and fostering creative, critical and independent thinking, of applying an interdisciplinary and participative approach in innovative development and of striving towards opening the digital world to a broader society.
Academically, researchers in the Humanities, Social or Behavioral Science are confronted with the need to apply digital tools to facilitate and enhance their research. The program enables graduates to enhance their research in the Humanities, Social or Behavioral Sciences through non-trivial uses of digital tools and techniques. This may include modeling and querying databases, accessing data, interconnecting andquerying web resources, extending tools with scripts to provide extra functionality, text-encoding and e-publishing, mining repositories, data visualization, analyzing social networks, adopting, adapting and enhancing e-learning environments, improvingusability of human-computer interaction. As such, graduates are very well placed to take on the challenges that novel research positions require.
Professionally, graduates of the Humanities, Social of Behavioral Sciences enter professional environments where connecting the company’s business with digital tools and techniques has become standard. Here as well, the program enables its graduates to put to use non-trivial digital techniques in their professional occupations, including e-media, publishing, arts, history, culture, music, libraries, e-education or interactions for end-user applications. Thus, graduates who want to pursue a career in the usual sectors for graduates of the Humanities, Social or Behavioral Sciences will be much better prepared to cope with the digital techniques that are currently applied there.
More generally, graduates of this program provide society with professionals and researchers who are able to bring their own domain expertise to a higher level of functionality, using digital tools and techniques. Building both on the expertise they obtained from the program and their prior expertise in Humanities, Social or Behavioral Sciences, are well placed to take part in opening the digital world to a larger community.
Graduates of this program who wish to move to a job profile involving more advanced digital competencies, are prepared to do so and will help to close to gap in an IT-focused labor market. This will require extra training at the company and aims at positions such as project analysts, project managers, service managers.
This programme explores the links between the humanities and medicine from a humanities point of view. Among the questions it considers are: What can the humanities contribute to healthcare? How do they differ from the sciences? And what can they tell us about illness?
The Medical Humanities are a growing field of scholarship that produces powerful, innovative analyses of today’s healthcare issues. You will study the fundamentals of the field and develop analytical and critical skills that will enable you to address questions such as:
You will leave us with a deep understanding of how a variety of humanities disciplines conceive of health and illness and of the contributions these can make to healthcare. The disciplines we cover include Philosophy, Literature, Film, Psychiatry, Art History and Nursing, leading to skills in the visual, bioethical, literary, historical and philosophical analyses of healthcare.
Based on our previous Literature & Medicine MA, this MSc allows you to choose from a broader range of modules, interact with a wider range of students, and gain a firm grounding in the medical humanities by following common required modules. Your fellow students will come from a wide variety of academic and health backgrounds, from biosciences such as medicine, nursing, psychology and from health law, social work and humanities such as philosophy, film and literary studies.
The MSc in Medical Humanities incorporates the previous King's MA Literature and Medicine programmes. The course allows students to choose a broader range of modules within their degree, interact with a wider range of students, and gain a firm footing in the medical humanities by following common core modules. Students will come from a wide variety of academic and health backgrounds: biosciences such as medicine, nursing, psychology; from health law and social work and humanities trainings in philosophy, film and/or literary studies. They will develop further skills in visual, bioethical, literary, historical and philosophical analyses of health care.
Teaching
If you are a full-tme student, we will give you five to nine hours of teaching each week through lectures and seminars, and we will expect you to undertake 34 hours of self-study. .
If you are a part-time student, we will give you three to five hours of teaching each week through lectures and seminars in your first year and two to four hours in your second year, and we will expect you to undertake 23 hours of self-study in your first year and 11 in your second year.
You will write your dissertation in your summer, for which we will give you four hours of supervision.
Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.
Assessment
We will normally assess you through coursework. Typically, 20-credit modules will be assessed through a 4,000-word essay and 40-credit modules through two 4,000-word essays. Your dissertation will be a 15,000-word essay.
Further academic study in medicine and/or the humanities, if you are hoping to study on a Medical Humanities PhD programme or a career in journalism or bioethics.
If your undergraduate degree has left you with a passion for independent research, and an interest in a particular topic in one area of the Humanities (Drama, English literature, History, Theology), this degree will allow you to advance both your subject knowledge and your research skills. Based around an individually devised and researched dissertation on the subject of your interest, it is designed to develop your understanding of high quality research within the Humanities and will give you the opportunity to research into a subject that you want to explore. Through this you will gain advanced knowledge, skills, and experience of conducting independent research.
Offered both full-time and part-time, the MRes includes a 90 credit independent research project with three supporting 30 credit modules: Research Methods in Humanities which will allow you to develop advanced research skills and reflective practice; Theory and Its Applications in which you will explore the shared concepts in Humanities which enable interpretations of text; Research Orientation which will be tailored to your individual project and focus on developing a sound project proposal and plan before starting the Dissertation module. In the Research Orientation and Dissertation modules we adopt a flexible approach allowing you to tailor learning and research to your specific interests. This provides the opportunity to become a well-rounded and critical researcher within the Humanities.
The MRes Pathway in the School of Humanities offers interdisciplinary training in critical, curatorial, historical and theoretical approaches to research in art and design. The pathway will foster experimentation, risk-taking and critical and creative thinking through humanities research, with a distinctive ‘art school’ ethos. Unique to the pathway is an emphasis on practice-led Humanities research: writing, curating, and designing research projects that are public-facing, contribute new knowledge and action around contemporary concerns, develop robust platforms for PhD and other subsequent research and can be applied across a rich range of professional careers.
MRes Humanities encourages interdisciplinary and experimental approaches to arts and humanities research. The broad base of expertise offered by the School of Humanities means that we can support research interests in art, design, photography, architecture and urban studies, fashion, the crafts, film, graphics, sound, performance, technology and emerging media. Given our location in a world-leading research intensive art and design university, our work is directly informed by our close relationship to contemporary practice and future-thinking in art and design. The School has an international network of partners, including museums, galleries and archives and arts, publishing and media organisations. Across professions, our graduates’ work is informed by critical practice, research and curatorial methods.
The Mres combines independent research and with training in research methods and skills. Students formulate and develop an independent study programme, supported by one-to-one tutorials with a personal research supervisor. Final outcomes for the independent study programme may include either a thesis or project. In addition, students will complete a portfolio of research outcomes. These might include devising arts proposals for exhibitions and public programmes, curating and programming live events, preparing texts for publication, and creating digital content such as blogs and podcasts. The portfolio will include a group project, designed and delivered collaboratively by the cohort of MRes. students.
MRes RCA Humanities students also undertake broad training in the research methods and skills used across research-led careers in the arts and humanities. Lectures, seminars, intensive workshops and projects led by the College and School’s internationally active faculty introduce students to a broad range of research practices and techniques which can be used in the independent study programme.
MRes Humanities will equip students to progress to doctoral research, or to pursue careers in the arts and the creative industries, whether through independent practice, consultancy or employment in arts organisations. The programme stresses entrepreneurial skills alongside intellectual growth. School of Humanities graduates have a strong track record in obtaining leadership roles in the arts, whether in academia, museums and galleries, cultural programming and management, journalism, publishing and criticism, or as independent practitioners. Our graduates shape as well as facilitate the future of practice, policy and strategy in cultural sectors worldwide.
The launch of the new MRes comes as we recognise the increasing role that research-informed thinking and practice plays in these fields internationally, and the RCA’s unparalleled ability to offer a training ground and networks to enhance developing careers.
Key features of the programme:
Visit our website for more information on fees, scholarships, postgraduate loans and other funding options to study Digital Humanities at Swansea University - 'Welsh University of the Year 2017' (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017).
Digital Humanities at Swansea has research strengths in innovative digital applications and critical studies of digital culture in several fields, where researchers in Arts, Humanities and Social Science areas are collaborating with Computer Scientists. These fields include applications and devices for the UK and international heritage sector, intellectual and literary history, digital editing, innovative mapping applications, applied linguistics and translation, digital mass media and experimental media, online cultures, digital pedagogy, digital security, war and crime, and societal impacts of digital technologies in both the rich and poor worlds. We are home to the Centre on Digital Arts and Humanities (CODAH), which connects arts and humanities, social science and computing researchers.
An MA by Research in Digital Humanities gives you the chance to pursue a project based around your own passions and interests, leading to a qualification which can open the door to an academic career or boost employment prospects outside academia (typically in the private sector, the Civil Service, or education).
The MA by Research in Digital Humanities will give you the freedom to explore a topic of your choosing and develop a methodology under the close supervision of two experienced academics but without attending regular classes as required in taught programmes.
You will be supervised closely by two experienced academics in your field. Typically, you will meet them fortnightly in the first term and at regular intervals thereafter. Meetings are logged and goals agreed each time.
All research students in Digital Humanities are required to attend skills and training courses at College and Institutional level. They give presentations to other research students and staff at departmental seminars and the annual departmental postgraduate symposium in June and the College of Arts and Humanities conference in October. Advanced research students may have opportunities to teach undergraduate tutorials and seminars. You have a budget (currently £200 per year) to attend conferences outside Swansea.
Digital Humanities boasts a dynamic research and teaching environment which has already won attention and funding from outside bodies such as the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Wellcome Trust and the EU, most recently a multi-million EPSRC grant for “CHERISH-DE”.
COAH staff with relevant expertise are located within all the COAH Departments (Languages, Translation and Communication; English Language and Literature; History and Classics; Political and Cultural Studies). COAH staff work closely on digital research with staff in other Colleges, especially the College of Science (home to Computer Science, Geography), the College of Human and Health Science (Psychology, Public Health, Health Data), the College of Law (Criminology).
Computer Science research at Swansea has particular strengths in human-computer interaction, ubiquitous computing, devices for resource-constrained communities, medical applications and informatics, visual computing, data visualisation, theoretical computer science.
Health humanities seeks novel ways of understanding health and illness in society, and how methods from the humanities and social studies may be brought to bear on biomedicine, clinical practice, and the politics of healthcare. Experiences and portrayals of health and illness in literature, film and contemporary culture are also studied.
The programme enables students to approach issues relating to health and illness from both a historical and contemporary perspective and from a variety of a disciplines, including anthropology, history, philosophy, sociology, science and technology studies, global health, literature and film studies. Students will also learn to work in an interdisciplinary manner.
Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.
The programme consists of two core modules (60 credits), elective modules of 15 or 30 credits each (up to a total of 60 credits) and a research dissertation (60 credits).
A Postgraduate Diploma (120 credits), two core modules (60 credits) and two electives (60 credits) is also offered.
A Postgraduate Certificate (60 credits) is also offered.
Core modules
Optional modules
Students may choose from the list of recommended modules below, or other relevant modules in UCL, with the approval of the convenors. Please note that some modules fill up very quickly, so places cannot be guaranteed.
Dissertation/report
All students undertake an independent research project which culminates in a dissertation of 10,000-12,000 words.
Teaching and learning
The programme is delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars. Assessment is through essays and a dissertation. There is no unseen examination.
Further information on modules and degree structure is available on the department website: Health Humanities MA
This MA provides an exceptional foundation for those hoping to undertake PhD research and pursue an academic career, ranging from interdisciplinary work in the health humanities to a broad spectrum of more specialised disciplines, such as medicine, the philosophy of medicine, history of medicine, medical sociology or medical anthropology, among others. It is also a suitable preparation for a range of careers including science and medical journalism, bioethics, healthcare policy, NGOs and museum and heritage.
Employability
The programme gives students opportunities to work in an interdisciplinary manner, and to engage in debate and develop their presentation skills. Students will gain experience of writing essays and training in conducting original research and applying the appropriate methodology. There are many additional activities available, both within the UCl Health Humanities Centre and the Institute of Advanced Studies, and the wider UCL community, to help students develop employability skills.
The Health Humanities MA is based in UCL's Health Humanities Centre which draws together world-leading researchers from different disciplines including medicine and health in history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and cultural and film studies.
Leading clinicians at UCL's acclaimed Medical School and Division of Psychiatry, who are engaged in humanities and social science research, are also actively involved with the centre. The centre was formed through the merger of the Centre for Philosophy, Justice and Health and the Centre for the History of Psychological Disciplines.
UCL Health Humanities Centre forms part of the new UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, which showcases and fosters multidisciplinary research within the humanities and the social sciences, with an active programme of events and visiting international scholars.
The Research Excellence Framework, or REF, is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. The 2014 REF was carried out by the UK's higher education funding bodies, and the results used to allocate research funding from 2015/16.
Learn more about the scope of UCL's research, and browse case studies, on our Research Impact website.
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