This course unites academic skills that employers value, such as research, critical thinking, writing and communication skills, with practical skills for the digital economy and creative industries. While the course seeks to enhance your employability, its ethos is also characterised by a strong commitment to raising awareness about social justice and social inequalities, including questions of access to the arts and education, and the impact of and potential solutions to the digital divide.
A compulsory core module in Digital Humanities will develop your knowledge of various methods and approaches to practicing humanities research with digital tools, including online content production, digitisation, online curation, the usage and ethics of big data.
The compulsory Public Humanities core module will introduce you to the different ‘publics’ cultural organisations engage with, and the theory and practice of outreach, access, advocacy, identity and cultural representation.
A compulsory Research Methods module complements these areas with advanced training in generic humanities research and presentation skills. You'll benefit from a range of optional modules in related areas, including Design, Computing and Tourism, alongside literary and cultural studies.
You’ll learn about theory, practices, and debates at the forefront of the Digital and Public Humanities, including a range of subjects from:
- Intersections between literary and cultural studies and computing
- Theories of the ‘public’ and communities, as they intersect with literary and cultural scholarship
- Representations of technology and society in cultural texts, and genre formation in the digital age
- Engaging the public with research through practices ranging from exhibition design to cultural heritage development
- Community media practice
A work placement option, as well as module choices in related disciplines including Computing, Design, and Tourism, allow you to put learning from core modules into practice.
A dissertation or major project enables you to synthesise learning from taught modules and undertake substantial independent research in a topic that interests you. By the end of the course you’ll be able to engage in critical theoretical debates around digital culture and public-facing scholarship, and you’ll have gained practical skills for engaging the public with the arts, culture and research through both digital media and community outreach. You’ll also be prepared to undertake PhD study if you wish to continue your research.
Modules
Compulsory modules include:
- Introduction to Digital Humanities: Theories, Practices and Debates
- Interdisciplinary Humanities Research: Methods and Skills
- Introduction to Public Humanities: Theories, Debates and Engagement
Options* include:
- Contemporary Genres: Culture in the Digital Age
- Mediated Cultures: Self, Technology and Society
- Design Dialogues
- Web Design and Development
- Exhibition Design
- Interpretative Design
- Tourism, Society and Visual Culture
- Community Media**
- Cities Real and Imagined**
- Crime in Text and Film**
- Fictions of Terror**
- Work Placement
*Please note that not all options will be available every year, dependent on staff expertise and availability, and timetabling.
** Students who have previously studied these modules at level 10 cannot take the associated option again at MA level.