Digital Humanities

[DHPhD4Me]

Having just begun my Digital Humanities PhD program hunt, I decided to turn to good ol' GradCafe. However, there seems to be a lack of a DH thread. Let's change that!

 

As a newer discipline, it can be challenging to find a reputable centre to work with. Any advice or opinions out there? I am considering UVic and King's College London. 

 

Looking forward to hearing from other aspiring digital humanists! 

 

Edit: I have moved this thread to the Humanities forum (accidentally posted in the Lit, Rhetoric and Comp). Thank you to proflorax for the following response:

"Here's a short list of DH programs in the Humanities forum. Perhaps it will be helpful!

 

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[Geograffe]

I see you've found the thread since your initial post - I was hoping to get a list of quality programs/universities that ALSO have a dedicated, well-funded digital humanities center... exactly what you seem to be describing here. Unfortunately, I think some schools hire a few faculty members who specialize in digital history or quantitative literature research and immediately start promoting themselves as digital humanities hotspots. Googling your way around that can be a mess.

All of the schools I've listed for people seeking careers in digital humanities: Stanford, Nebraska, Maryland, Illinois, Virginia... they're all pretty active and reputable. I would definitely add King's College London to that list, too (I was arrogantly developing a US-only list before, or I would have included it). In fact, many of these places have hosted the giant annual digital humanities conference, so perhaps that visibility is influencing my opinion. Which reminds me - Nebraska is hosting DH 2013 next week, even. Canadians are planning to make a big splash there.

If your real aim is to acquire a PhD in digital humanities, though, that can be a little more tricky. In fact, I would NOT limit yourself only to universities that specifically offer a digital humanities degree. If you can get into something in English, history, classics, or something like that... and specialize in digital humanities research from there, you probably will end up in the same career position, as your skills and experience should match (roughly) that of a DH degree. In fact, "majoring" in something with emphasis in digital research might even improve academic job prospects: Humanities programs want to show that they are relevant and engaged in digital research with contemporary analytical tools, so they often want faculty who bring that to the table. Meanwhile, I would think digital humanities centers want a diverse and reputable group of researchers who have expert knowledge in various subjects.

Anyway, I would love to live in either London or Victoria, so maybe your list is good enough already?