Certificate in Digital Humanities

In our increasingly digitized world, the question isn’t whether to use digital technology, but how. Institutions of higher education, as well as employers in many other sectors, recognize that digital humanities skills such as text analysis, mapping, and coding have transformative potential. BC’s Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities offers a coordinated curriculum that is feasible for graduate candidates to complete alongside existing degree requirements. The program combines interdisciplinary methodological training with discipline-specific coursework to provide students with training and institutional recognition of their accomplishments in this fast-growing field.

A joint effort of the History and English Departments and the Boston College Libraries’ Digital Scholarship Group, the program offers M.A. and Ph.D. students the opportunity to diversify their skill-sets and produce projects such as digital archives, data visualizations, online exhibits, and scholarly websites. This project-based approach puts a premium on collaboration and interdisciplinary inquiry. In the process, Certificate holders will enhance their employment prospects in both traditional academia as well as in publishing, government, museums, libraries, archives, and other alt-ac fields.

Eligibility

Students wishing to pursue the Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities must first be enrolled in a graduate degree program at Boston College. They will be able to pursue coursework in accordance with their preparation under any of the following disciplines:

  • Classical Studies
  • English
  • History
  • Economics
  • Political Science
  • Philosophy
  • Psychology
  • Romance Languages and Literatures
  • Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures
  • Sociology
  • Theology

Admission will be open to all interested graduate students with approval from their graduate advisor.

Requirements

The curriculum for the certificate program consists of three courses:

  • HIST 7817/ENGL 7801: Digital Scholarship for the Humanities (introductory course)
  • One relevant course within the home department
  • A capstone course conducted under the auspices of the Libraries’ Digital Scholarship Group (third year for doctoral students, second year for MAs)

The introductory course covers methodological aspects of the digital humanities, giving students the technical skills needed to do independent digital scholarship. The departmental course will allow students to apply these skills to discipline-specific work as they complete a digital project agreed to in advance with the course instructor. The capstone course will give students a chance to create a larger-scale work of digital scholarship, perhaps in collaboration with other students in the program, which they can use as part of a portfolio to demonstrate their abilities to potential employers.

Procedures

Interested graduate students should contact the program director as early as possible in their graduate studies. They will need to take the introductory course in the digital humanities and get approval from their departmental advisor to enroll in the program. Because the certificate is interdisciplinary, drawing from the course offerings of other departments, students must plantheir schedules accordingly to ensure that approved electives are offered and can be taken by the time of graduation. For more information, please contact the program director at: DHCertificate@bc.edu

Courses

Spring 2021

Affiliated Faculty

Marilynn Johnson
History

Brittany Lehman
Library

Joe Nugent
English

Angie Piccone
History

Christy Pottroff
English

Dana Sajdi
History

Stephen Sturgeon
Library

Eric Weiskott
English

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