Digital Humanities and Culture Courses

What is Digital Humanities and Culture?

Digital Humanities is a field of study, research, and invention at the intersection of humanities, computing, and information management.

Digital humanities use digital methods to delve deeper into humanities subjects like history, literature or arts through the collection, analysis and visualization of humanities data and to process digital information. As a result, we are able to study humanities topics in a new way.

What 3rd level courses are available?

Universities and colleges in Ireland are offering courses in Digital Humanities and Culture in the following subject areas:

• Digital Humanities and Culture (M.Phil./P.Grad.Dip.) – An introduction to the understanding of a humanities subject through data mining and visualization; explore the virtual transmission of culture and heritage by and beyond museums, libraries and archives; or join the movement to make technology development more humane.
• BA (Hons) In Digital Humanities – An innovative development in arts education that will provide you with critical and practical skills to meet the demands of a rapidly changing digital environment.
• Digital Humanities: Research – An introduction to Digital Research in the Humanities such as English, Music, Media Studies, History, Celtic Studies, Languages.
• Digital Humanities – Learn to use digital technology to analyze and discover new knowledge about heritage and historic and cultural works.

Studying Digital Humanities and Culture

There are many courses in Digital Humanities and Culture that may take place over a few days, weeks or even 1 year to 4 years depending on the course and modules selected. There are also part-time courses and night courses available so you can be sure to fit in your studies no matter what your schedule is like.

Courses will cover theory work through lectures, assignments, tutorials and taught modules. Assessments will take place on a continuous basis with written examinations and practical assignments combined in order to achieve a qualification.

You could also consider work experience or a work shadow in the industry. Relevant work experience is a good way of demonstrating a genuine interest in the field and is regarded favorably by employers.

Work Experience will not only give you the opportunity to obtain a deeper knowledge and understanding of the industry, it will also give you a chance to do some essential networking with other industry professionals and gain valuable contacts for the future.

Career options

After completing a Digital Humanities and Culture course you will be able to get started in a career that uses specific knowledge of acquiring, managing and maintaining digital information and other materials that have historical and cultural importance for individuals, organizations and nations.

Within the field of Digital Humanities, a large part of your work will be related to preserving information and making it accessible to users, increasingly in digital format.

Archives may include valuable historical books, papers, maps and plans, as well as photographs, prints, films, tapes, videos and computer-generated records. Users include researchers, academics, other professional staff and the general public.

Typical employers include The National Archives and the National Records, cultural institutions such as museums and art galleries, universities, large charities, central government and government agencies, hospitals, religious foundations, media organizations, professional organizations, specialist repositories within the private sector in large corporations, businesses and industrial organizations and private institutions, families and individuals.

Working hours will depend on whether you are self-employed, employed by a company with set business hours or if you are contracted to various businesses or companies. Archives offering a public service may require shift work or flexible working, especially in local government archives, where record offices often share opening hours with local libraries.

You are likely to spend a large proportion of your time working at a computer. Some tasks may be physically demanding.

Related jobs include:

• Archivist
• Digital curator
• Data scientist
• Academic researcher
• Records manager
• Museum/gallery curator
• Civil Service fast streamer
• Editorial assistant
• Heritage manager
• Higher education lecturer
• Market researcher
• Museum/gallery curator
• Newspaper journalist
• Archaeologist
• Conservator
• Heritage manager
• Historic buildings inspector/conservation officer
• Museum education officer
• Museum/gallery curator
• Museum/gallery exhibitions officer
• Higher education lecturer

Further study

After completing a course in Digital Humanities and Culture you may choose to pursue further study in a specialist field to increase your knowledge base and skill set. Postgraduate study can also be used as a means to change career focus or to gain professional qualifications required to practice in certain career areas such as history, law, classics, philosophy, literature and modern languages.

FAQ

What is the difference between Digital Humanities and Traditional Humanities subjects?

There is no real difference between the two because Digital Humanities is an extension of traditional humanities where information technology is incorporated and becomes a central part of the methodology for creating and processing data.

Digital Humanities is made up of a broad community of practitioners, which includes both humanities academics and technology specialists.

What are the benefits of Digital Humanities over traditional approaches to the study of Humanities?

The benefits of Digital Humanities include:

• Quicker access to information through digital access – This means more people can review, see and learn from the project. You are also able to more easily search through the data, combine different data sources, hyperlink to relevant background materials, and more.
• Integration of qualitative and quantitative approaches – You can present and interlink digitised text, images, and time-based media with maps, timelines, data, and visualizations.
• Content management and data analysis – You can mine, map and re-organize the resources – whatever you need to uncover trends, themes and key learnings.
• Enhanced teaching – Digital Humanities helps students learn by being able to see more, experience more, and collaborate together.
• Improved collaboration – Digital resources and environments can provide a common platform for project development and group-sourcing of materials, and facilitate local, regional and global partnerships.

Where can I study Digital Humanities and Culture?

Explore your options here

 Did You Know?

• There were an estimated 58 billion Internet users globally in 2017. This means that more than half of the world’s adult population uses the Internet.
• Every single second, approximately 40 000 Google searches take place around the world. This equates to a staggering 1.2 trillion searches per year. This is one of the reasons why Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become such a highly demanded skill in the workplace.
• Studies show that adults in the UK check their smartphones every 12 minutes of the day. 40% of people (and 65% of people under the age of 35) check their smartphones within five minutes of waking up.
• Do you know that you can code using just whitespaces? The programming language that makes it possible is called ‘Whitespace’. All it takes to write a program in this language is to use the spaces, tabs, and linefeeds. The interpreter ignores any non-whitespace characters.