Digital Humanities is an interdisciplinary academic field that brings digital technology to bear on the study of the human record. The Graduate Certificate Program in Digital Humanities at UNL allows graduate and post-baccalaureate students to gain scholarly credentials in Digital Humanities. Work in this area can take a variety of forms, including:

  1. Digital scholarly editing.
  2. The creation of thematic research archives and resources.
  3. Programmatic analysis of large-scale textual corpora.
  4. The use of geo-spatial tools and technologies to study the interaction of people and place.
  5. Data mining and machine learning techniques using historical data.
  6. 3D modeling of historical buildings and artifacts.
  7. Tool building and software development for humanities research.
  8. The creation of games, interactive environments, and media systems with a humanistic focus.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is an international leader in the field, with over a dozen faculty in the departments of English, History, Modern Languages, and the University Libraries. We are also home to the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, which hosts over forty projects in the area, including The Walt Whitman Archive, The Willa Cather Archive, Railroads and the Making of Modern America, Civil War Washington, the electronic journal Scholarly Editing, and many others.

UNL's Digital Humanities faculty are recognized leaders in the field. They teach and conduct research in all areas of the digital humanities and participate in a variety of research efforts around the world.


Requirements

The Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities is open to graduate students currently enrolled in graduate degree programs at UNL, and is also available as a standalone (non-degree) post-baccalaureate certification.

Students take a total of twelve credit hours in the area. Two of the courses are required:

  • HIST/ENGL/MODL 946: Interdisciplinary Reading Seminar in Digital Humanities. An in-depth, seminar-style survey of the scholarly literature in digital humanities, theory of new media, computational history, and related topics.
  • HIST/ENGL/MODL 895E: Internship in Digital Humanities. A course that provides hands-on training in project-based scholarship by pairing students in the certificate program with active projects at the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities

The remaining six credit hours may be drawn from courses approved by the Certificate Program's Adviser. Examples of regularly taught courses that may be easily applied toward the certification include:

  • HIST 970: Seminar in Digital History
  • HIST 870: Digital History
  • ENGL 4/878: Digital Archives and Editions
  • ENGL 4/898: Electronic Texts: Development and Design

Formal application to the Certificate Program is required and can be completed online. Applications are accepted throughout the year (i.e. rolling admission). To complete the application, please go to http://www.unl.edu/gradstudies/, and click on Application for Graduate Admission (in yellow). Under the "Admission Classification" section of item No. 4 (“Admission Objective”), click the radio button for "Non-Degree, Graduate Certificate Objective" and then choose "Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities" from the drop down list. Once your application has been received, you will be notified of your acceptance to the program and offered an opportunity to meet with the program coordinator to discuss the curriculum.

Questions? Please contact the Digital Humanities Certificate Program Adviser, Professor Matthew L. Jockers: mjockers@unl.edu