Digital Humanities PhD

Digital Humanities is an interdisciplinary subject area that brings a range of computational, quantitative and other innovative and collaborative methods to the study of texts, images, histories, languages and cultures, while also being critical about methodology, disciplinarity and pedagogy.

Digital Humanities in the School of Advanced Study demonstrates the value of digital research to the wider humanities community and fulfils the School’s remit to promote and facilitate digitally enabled research across the disciplines. The School’s multidisciplinary DH team comprises academics with strong connections to subject areas including Classics, English, History and Modern Languages and Cultures, as well as researchers and practitioners with technical backgrounds.

Undertaking doctoral research in the digital humanities allows you to develop in-depth knowledge, while making a meaningful contribution to your chosen field.

With guidance from our expert supervisors, you'll carry out extensive independent research culminating in a thesis of up to 100,000 words. 

This degree presents the opportunity to gain expertise in your area of interest while also honing a range of transferable skills. On completing this course, you'll be well prepared for specialist career paths both within academia and beyond.

Subject Areas and Supervision

PhD students are based in the Digital Humanities Research Hub, which has strong connections with the Institutes in the School. Academic staff in the Hub has expertise in Classics, English, History and Modern Languages and Cultures. Students will also have the opportunity to work with technical experts and other digital humanities practitioners. It is also possible to secure co-supervision from a supervisor based elsewhere in the School who can offer additional disciplinary expertise.

All of the digital research in the School has a strong humanities focus and brings together technical expertise with a strong foundation in specific disciplinary approaches. Recent research in the Hub has included:

• Humanities approaches to the archived web
• Analysing COVID misinformation on social media
• The transnational comparison of parliamentary proceedings
• Computational text analysis of the 1921 Census records
• The application of digital methods to papyrology
• Digital resources in cultural heritage institutions
• Multilingual analysis of contemporary news coverage using natural language processing

Before submitting an application you are advised to contact a member of academic staff who has interests in your proposed field of study to discuss your proposal.

Digital Humanities at the School of Advanced Study

Digital Humanities is an interdisciplinary subject area that brings a range of computational, quantitative and other innovative and collaborative methods to the study of texts, images, histories, languages and cultures, while also being critical about methodology, disciplinarity and pedagogy.

Digital Humanities in the School of Advanced Study demonstrates the value of digital research to the wider humanities community and fulfils the School’s remit to promote and facilitate digitally enabled research across the disciplines. The School’s multidisciplinary DH team comprises academics with strong connections to subject areas including Classics, English, History and Modern Languages and Cultures, as well as researchers and practitioners with technical backgrounds.

Course dates

8 January 2024

Location

Digital Humanities Research Hub

Course duration

3-4 years (full-time); 5-6 years (part-time)

Application deadlines

Applications will open in October 2023 for January 2024 entry.

Level of study

MPhil/PhD

Mode of study

Full-time On Campus, Part-time On Campus, Full-Time Distance Learning, Part-time Distance Learning

Funding opportunities

Contact Us

If you have specific questions, please make an enquiry.