Proposal to develop PhD Coursework in Digital Methods

I understand that in the medium-term future all students undertaking a PhD through the Arts Faculty will be required to complete coursework in addition to their thesis. Calls have been made for suggestions for suitable courses.

My proposed session aims to discuss options for coursework in digital methods for the Arts and Humanities, and if possible set up collaborations to keep the project moving forward.

In the session we might begin to discuss which e-methods, which applications, and which skills are most appropriate to expose PhD students to, which pedagogical methods are best for this, how a curriculum might be structured, what outcomes we would want for our students, and so on.

My initial thinking on this is to offer two short courses….

1. A Critical Survey of Digital Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences

The purpose of this short course is alert students to the range of electronic methods available to scholars for the purposes of document and data capture, collaboration and communication, data analysis, publishing and dissemination, data structure and enhancement, practice-led research, and research strategy and project management. Having completed this survey, students will be in a position to critically assess the value of particular digital methods for their own research work. The course may be offered largely online.

2. Applied Digital Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences

The purpose of this short course is to enable students to gather practical expertise in the application of particular digital methods. It is anticipated that students will have previously completed “A Critical Survey of Digital Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences” and that groups of interested students are clustering around particular applications. The course may be offered in intensive mode.

A few examples of the resources and tools we can draw on are here…