M.Phil. Digital Humanities and Culture

Course Description

Many of the biggest questions in our world today can only be answered by drawing on knowledge of both culture and technology. Trinity’s MPhil in Digital Humanities and Culture prepares its students to take on these questions in a wide variety of contexts, whether they want to deepen their understanding of a humanities subject through data mining and visualisation; 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.

In the digital humanities, researchers trained in history, literature, languages, the arts, computer science and engineering combine their skills to transform our understanding of the world. They also develop the technological capacity to drive forward our ability to see patterns in human behaviours and how humans describe their experiences. What sets apart our course from other Digital Humanities courses is the equal emphasis we place on what technology can do for humanities research, and what humanities research can do to promote the rise of human-centred technology design. We also use the established collaborations across our disciplines and with our library and technical support colleagues to deliver a unique educational experience. The flow of challenges, knowledge and techniques between students and staff in the course from diverse backgrounds creates many unexpected and transformative opportunities to grow our understanding of the world.

Whether your background is in in the humanities, arts, information management, cultural heritage or computer science, the MPhil in Digital Humanities and Culture will give you the skills to:
• Apply cutting-edge methods to interrogate the most fundamental questions of literature, history and the arts.
• Deepen your understanding of cultural practices and tensions in the digital age.
• Build your own digital projects, honing your existing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills and gaining new ones.
• Experience how a professional organisation manages the impact of technology on culture in an internship setting.
• Work and learn alongside the members of the many active research project teams of the Trinity Centre for Digital Humanities.

The MPhil and the Centre for Digital Humanities
Students on the Masters in Digital Humanities and Culture are encouraged to participate in the activities, projects and network of the Trinity Centre for Digital Humanities (www.dh.tcd.ie). Trinity is internationally recognised for its research in this field, and maintains a lively team of DH researchers, projects, partners and visitors. The Trinity Centre for Digital Humanities acts as a conduit between researchers at Trinity and the nationally recognised, ADAPT, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Digital Media Technology (https://www.adaptcentre.ie/), the DARIAH ERIC European Research Infrastructure for Arts and Humanities (www.dariah.eu), and as a wide network of international research partners based in world class institutions such as the Humboldt University (Berlin), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Paris) and the Digital Archiving and Networking Service of the Netherlands (the Hague).

MPhil, Diploma and Certificate Options
The programme can be accessed via three different entry routes, each of which offers its own advantages. With the Postgraduate Certificate, students complete three required courses to develop a basic understanding of and fluency with the methods and contexts of the digital humanities. With the Postgraduate Diploma, students complete 6 courses (4 required, 2 elective) to obtain a thorough grounding in both the theory and the practice underpinning the digital humanities. Finally, with the Masters of Philosophy, students will have the opportunity to apply what they have learned in their coursework through the development of a research dissertation.

The Educational Experience

Postgraduate Certificate
Postgraduate Certificate students take three modules in total. Two of these take a theoretical approach, focussing during the Michaelmas term on the Theory and Practice of Digital Humanities and in Hilary term on Cultural-Technical Systems. At the same time as taking these two lecture and discussion–based modules, students take the practical module: Building Digital Humanities Projects.

Postgraduate Diploma
Postgraduate Diploma students take four core modules. Two of these take a theoretical approach, focussing during the Michaelmas term on the Theory and Practice of Digital Humanities and in Hilary term on Cultural-Technical Systems. At the same time as taking these two lecture and discussion–based modules, students take two practical modules: Building Digital Humanities Projects and Digital Humanities Internships and Project Management. Students also take two optional modules (one per term), selected from a range of options offered from across the relevant disciplines at Trinity, including options such as Digital Storytelling, Programming for Digital Media and Interlingual Technologies.

Master’s Degree
Masters students take four core modules (two in each semester). Two of these take a theoretical approach, focussing during the Michaelmas term on the Theory and Practice of Digital Humanities and in Hilary term on Cultural-Technical Systems. At the same time as taking these two lecture and discussion–based modules, students take two practical modules: Building Digital Humanities Projects and Digital Humanities Internships and Project Management. Students also take two optional modules (one per term), selected from a range of options offered from across the relevant disciplines at Trinity, including options such as Digital Storytelling, Programming for Digital Media and Interlingual Technologies. Finally, students complete a research dissertation on a topic of their choice, receiving guidance from supervisors who are experts in their fields.

What our Graduates say about the Course
The postgraduate programme in Digital Humanities and Culture provides the opportunity for students to engage in this new and dynamic area of research via the technologies, methodologies, and theories for digitally-mediated humanities and culture. Previous students of the course have said: