MPhil in Digital Humanities
Cambridge, United Kingdom
DURATION
9 Months
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
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EARLIEST START DATE
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TUITION FEES
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STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Introduction
The MPhil in Digital Humanities is a nine-month course that runs from October to June. The course is directed by Cambridge Digital Humanities, a research centre with links across a wide range of faculties and units at Cambridge. The course is administered by the Faculty of English. This exciting MPhil explores the ways in which the humanities engage with digital futures, digital research, and digital cultures, as questions arise around the ethics of automation, algorithmic analysis, privacy/surveillance, virtual cultures, data sharing, intelligent agency and creativity, archival justice and digital histories, collections and heritage issues. The course gives students critical/theoretical orientations and delivers a structured form of engagement with digital methods, tools, and approaches while enabling flexibility in terms of specialism. Students may come from multiple disciplines and the course caters to different skill levels in DH methods. Students take two broad core courses – Approaches and Methods, and Data and Algorithmic Analysis – and follow two courses from a basket of more specialist options. The course is assessed through shorter essays and a year-long dissertation or portfolio project.
The MPhil
This MPhil has been set up in response to the growth of the field of Digital Humanities, and to the need for the humanities to grapple with emerging forms, practices, and social formations shaped in a digital age.
Its aim is to expand the humanities offering at post-graduate level at Cambridge by offering a route for cross-disciplinary engagement and the development of new skills and knowledges. The MPhil will give students a stuctured form of engagement with digital methods, tools, approaches, and critical and theoretical orientations. It will enable humanities or social science trained students to develop the critical literacy and practical skills and knowledges to understand and engage with digital materials and digital methods for the study of matters relevant to the humanities.
The MPhil will enable students to demonstrate an advanced general understanding of digital humanities and related topics by using a range of critical and theoretical approaches and methodologies. Students will be able to demonstrate a deeper expertise in chosen research areas or in particular approaches through optional courses in Lent term and by way of an extended dissertation or portfolio. You will acquire a critical and well-informed understanding of the stakes of digital transformation in contemporary society, and participate in the advanced research culture of the DH community at Cambridge and beyond by attending and contributing to research seminars, practical and methodological workshops, and reading groups.
Admissions
Curriculum
Teaching
The required element of the course consists of two core courses in the Michaelmas term and two course choices from a basket of options in the Lent term. Students are also required to attend a lecture/workshop series and research seminar programme which will run alongside the courses. Students will be expected to attend training sessions provided by the University Library on bibliographical and library skills, along with sessions on electronic resources.
Supervision
- 8 hours of one-to-one supervision per year
- 48 hours from 2 x core courses and 2 x optional courses per year
Seminars
- 20 hours of research seminars per year
Lectures
- 20 hours of lecture/workshops per year
Feedback
Each student will be allocated a supervisor who gives advice on planning the year’s work and the dissertation/portfolio in particular. Advice on the coursework essays is given by the convenor of the appropriate class and further supervision is offered by the dissertation supervisor, who may read small sections of written work. Documentation offering specifications and guidance in relation to each element of assessed work are provided to students. Progress is monitored through the discussion with each student of draft sections of their dissertations by their supervisor and through submitted work. The short, written exercise, which is submitted in the Michaelmas term, receives feedback from the supervisor; the first coursework essay which is submitted at the end of Michaelmas term, is returned with two examiners' comments at the beginning of Lent term; the Lentterm coursework essay is returned with two examiners' comments at the beginning of Easter term. Supervisors write termly reports online which can be accessed by the student.
How to find a supervisor
Students on this degree may be supervised by members of Cambridge Digital Humanities and by others at Cambridge affiliated or linked with CDH. Please note that although prospective graduate students may wish to look at the list of faculty members' research interests before they decide to apply, it is the responsibility of the relevant committee to consider research applications and to match appropriate supervisors to research projects. Supervisors aren't appointed until after the candidate has been accepted and cannot appoint themselves to supervise a project in advance.
Assessment
Thesis
- Either, a dissertation of not more than 12,000 words in length submitted at the end of the course (60% of final grade)
- Or, a portfolio, comprising a dissertation of not more than 8,000 words in length, and a project report of not more than 4,000 words in length. The project report may include a methodological report and technical appendices that may comprise or include elements in visual, digital, or other formats (60% of final grade).
Essays
- One 2,000-word essay relating to the dissertation or portfolio, which is marked on a pass/resubmission basis.
- Two essays of 5,000 words each. One is submitted at the end of the Michaelmas term, the other at the end of the Lent term. These relate to the work pursued in the core and optional courses and each contributes 20% towards the final mark.
Program Outcome
Continuing
This MPhil will benefit students seeking to stay with the field of DH at doctoral level and beyond by enabling them to hone their critical and methodological skills, develop new approaches and test them out, and specialise. It will also benefit students wishing to take their learning back to home disciplines, as they will have gained the critical and practical digital literacy to inform future research.
Other careers which may follow an MPhil in DH could include those in galleries, libraries, archives, museums, creative industries, digital media industries and media arts – as students will have gained the critical perspectives, practical digital literacies, and methodological insights to pursue these pathways.
MPhil students may apply to continue to a PhD with the relevant Faculty. The academic condition for continuation at Cambridge is normally an overall mark of 70 or more for the MPhil course, and a mark of 70 or more for the dissertation/portfolio. Other conditions may also be imposed.