Data Science in the Humanities Minor
Program Requirements
- Total units required: 15
Any humanities student will feel at home in this minor and in its active research community. No previous experience with computational methods is required; the curriculum equips students with the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate the field of Digital Humanities, and those skills and that knowledge are eminently "transferable." Computational approaches to questions in the humanities are slowly migrating from the methodological fringes of the disciplines of cultural, artistic and historical inquiry. Students in the minor will have the opportunity to engage with the emerging future of their fields and to help shape that future.
A student who does have previous computational experience — a computer science major, for instance — will also benefit from this minor. By grafting that knowledge to the problems of cultural and historical analysis and working on challenging new projects within unfamiliar fields, computer-savvy students will find themselves becoming more versatile and more attractive to graduate admissions committees and potential employers.
For the minor, students will take 15 units of course work, at least 6 units of which should be drawn from the four core DASH courses, plus at least 3 units of internship (which can be repeated for up to 8 credits). The internship research experience is required and consists of working under the director of a faculty on a project through IPH or the Humanities Digital Workshop. The DASH courses and internship can be supplemented with elective courses in Computational Humanities, Digital Culture and Design, or Computer Science.
Requirements
1. Courses (6-10 units):
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| IPH 312 | Introduction to Digital Humanities | 3 |
| IPH 431 | Statistics for Humanities Scholars: Data Science for the Humanities | 3 |
| IPH 430 | Data Manipulation for the Humanities | 1 |
| IPH 432 | Programming for Text Analysis | 3 |
2. Internships (3-8 units):
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| IPH 399 | Internship in Digital Humanities (Can be repeated for up to 8 total credits) | 3-8 |
3. Electives (up to 6 units)
Internship Research
The DASH minor is unusual among humanities programs in its focus on hands-on undergraduate research via internship. STEM fields provide relatively straightforward pathways toward research, whereas humanities students sometimes struggle to define what humanities research entails and how to get involved. Research opportunities are built into the DASH minor. DASH requires every student to take at least 3 units of directed research during an internship on a faculty-led project, and students are encouraged to work on more than one project or to advance their skills during another semester or summer. Students may take up to 8 units of internship/research. Lists of projects can be found on the IPH and Humanities Digital Workshop websites.
Every summer, the Humanities Digital Workshop invites applications from students for its summer fellowships. The fellowships pair students with humanities faculty engaged in digital humanities projects for 8 weeks, and past participants have overwhelmingly found this experience to be valuable.
Contact Info
| Phone: | 314-935-4200 |
| Email: | complitandthought@wustl.edu |