RESEARCH PROFILE
- Research income: £1.8m in 2011-2012.
- Current number of academic staff: 16.
- Current number of research students: 20.
- Recent publications:
- Humanities Computing.
- The Collected Works of Thomas Middleton.
- Supporting Annotation as a Scholarly Tool - Experiences From the Online Chopin Variorum Edition.
- Digital Preservation.
- Lost Theatre and Performance Traditions in Greece and Italy.
- Current research projects:
- Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England.
- Jane Austen's Holograph Printed Manuscripts.
- Inscriptions of Aphrodisias.
- Out of the Wings - Spanish and Spanish American Theatres in Translation: A Virtual Environment for Research and Practice
- The Body and Mask: Ancient Theatre Space.
KEY FACTS
Student destinations
A research degree in the digital humanities will equip you to make substantial and original contributions to any field or activity in which computing is applied to the study, conservation or presentation of cultural artifacts. Because the degree privileges human knowledge and cultural production rather than the tools used to study these things, it will also prepare you to offer powerfully creative resistance to computing in its present state and so to help advance it in the best possible way. The degree is thus highly relevant to further work in higher education and the cultural sector.
Head of group/division
Professor Willard McCarty.
Duration
Expected to be three years FT, four-six years PT.
Location
Strand Campus.
Year of entry 2013
Offered by
School of Arts and Humanities
Department of Digital Humanities
Closing date
None. Students interested in applying to funding should be aware that deadlines for this differ and may be earlier, therefore applicants should view the Graduate Funding Pages at
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/pg/funding/sources/index.aspx for more information.
No set number.
Fees
CONTACTS
Contact information
Postgraduate Officer, Centre for Arts & Sciences Admissions (CASA)
tel: +44 (0) 20 7848 2736
fax: +44 (0) 20 7848 7200
Email
Website
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION
This is a pioneering doctoral programme, based in one of the world’s most prestigious centres for the emerging discipline of Digital Humanities. We welcome applications from potential students with any disciplinary background in the humanities. Our research explores the intersection of digital tools and methods with one or more artefacts, cultural expressions or processes studied in the humanities or interpretative social sciences. Examples might include: the reconstruction of historical persons and communities from scattered evidence; the modelling of literary contexts; the formation of identities through online activities; the exploration of the relationship between verbal description and visual representation; the online imagining of diasporic communities; and the visualization of data from historic sources. A distinctive and exciting feature of the programme is its interdisciplinary structure, with collaborative supervision between the Department of Digital Humanities and other appropriate Departments such as History or Classics. In addition to these areas, Digital Humanities is developing links with the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries that allow broad exploration of the meaning of digital cultures and the information society, with particular emphasis on social networks and digital industries, digital ontologies and political action online.
We offer a lively range of activities for research students, including a regular doctoral seminar, advanced seminars such as the London Seminar in Digital Text and Scholarship. Students are also encouraged to participate in such London activities as the Decoding the Digital Humanities reading group.
Staff interests associated with the research programme and its research groups
Interests:
New media and digital technologies; subjectivity, identity, embodiment and singularity; (bio)ethics; politics of borders, immigration and citizenship; continental philosophy and psychology.
Tel:
020 7848 1011
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
text editing modern manuscripts; text encoding; digital publishing; collaborative research in the Digital Humanities; modeling
Tel:
+44 (0)20 7848 1949
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Project management, databases, text mark-up and electronic publishing, computing in historical studies, digital library research.
Tel:
+44 (0)20 7848 2739
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Ancient Greek and Roman drama and its influence, advanced visualisation techniques eg to explore 'theatrical' aspects of Pompeian frescos and Roman domestic environments, editor of Didaskalia providing visual resources of ancient drama.
Tel:
020 7848 2719
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Text markup and analysis tools, web based electronic publishing, humanities applications for databases.
Tel:
020 7848 2680
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Scholarly editing, 17th-century English literature, 20th-century American literature, theory of digital texts.
Tel:
+44 (0)20 7848 2453
Fax:
020 7848 2980
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Palaeography and manuscript studies; Digital Humanities, particularly the application of digital tools and techniques to palaeography and manuscript studies; Old English, Latin language and literature; Medieval studies, early medieval history
Tel:
+44 (0)20 7848 2813
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Ancient theatre, the application of advanced information technology, especially 3D visualisation, to the research of historic theatre sites and stage settings, as well as modern theatres and more broadly material cultural heritage.
Tel:
020 7848 2780
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Tim is a Senior Lecturer at King's College London (beginning January 2011). He is the author of Hacking: digital media and technological determinism, Activism!: direct action, hacktivism and the future of society and, with Paul Taylor, of Hacktivism and Cyberwars. He is currently working (and playing) in online persistent worlds, exploring communicative practices in online and offline life. He has published work on social movements, hackers, Pokemon, the culture and politics of the Internet and social theory. He is a co-founder and until recently an editor of Social Movement Studies: journal of social, cultural and political protest.
Tel:
+44 (0)20 7848 1100
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Literary and linguistic computing, Ovidian studies, meta-textual representation, humanities computing.
Tel:
+44 (0)20 7848 2784
Fax:
Email:
Website:
ACADEMIC ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
General entry advice
An MA degree in the humanities or social sciences, with a mark of distinction or high merit, or an overseas equivalent. In exceptional circumstances, applicants holding a first class or good upper second class honours degree (or overseas equivalent) may be admitted. Applicants must demonstrate mastery of the academic background deemed relevant to the research proposed.
APPLYING TO KING'S
To apply for graduate study at King's you will need to complete our graduate online application form. Applying online makes applying easier and quicker for you, and means we can receive your application faster and more securely.
King's does not normally accept paper copies of the graduate application form as applications must be made online. However, if you are unable to access the online graduate application form, please contact the relevant admissions/School Office at King's for advice.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
Prior to formal application students develop a cogent research proposal in correspondence with the Director of Research, Professor McCarty. On his approval, formal application may proceed. A preliminary visit to the department in London is highly desirable but not required. Normally studies begin in the autumn semester. If advised to proceed, applications should be made by early January, particularly if funding is required. Admission to the PhD programme is initially for the MPhil, but we expect students to transfer to the PhD after an appropriate period, by agreement with their supervisor, the departmental Research Committee and the College.
PERSONAL STATEMENT & SUPPORTING INFORMATION
No information required.
FUNDING
AHRC, Graduate School and School of Arts & Humanities studentships and bursaries, self-funded.
Student profiles
Digital Humanities Research MPhil/PhD
Universities and particularly humanities departments have for years been split along fairly rigid disciplinary lines. You were either an historian, or a linguist, or a literary scholar. But all of that is changing, and King’s is right at the cutting-edge of this interdisciplinary shift. My project traverses history and the digital humanities, looking at how we can paint a different picture of the past by analysing millions of historical records.
To ensure my success King’s has provided me with world-leading supervisors in both history and digital humanities, meaning I have someone to turn to no matter what type of challenge I face. If you leave a meeting more energised about your project than when you went in, you know you have a great supervisor. I am very lucky to have two great ones, both of whom are incredibly generous with their knowledge and show that they care about my research and my progress. That may sound simple, but it is incredibly valuable.
The support I have received from King’s offers doesn’t end with my supervisors, however. I was fortunate enough to receive financial assistance from the College through the King’s Continuation Scholarship. As an international student this award has made it much easier for me to focus on my studies without the added burden of finding ways to pay for them. I have also taken the opportunity to gain teaching experience by serving as a graduate teaching assistant within the history department.
The departments themselves tirelessly look for new and better ways to bolster student research and experiences. Despite the fact that I attend a world-class university, the heads of both of my departments know me by name and greet me warmly in the corridors. You don’t get that everywhere, but we have it here, and that’s pretty cool.
Digital Humanities Research MPhil/PhDWhile working in the digital nonprofit sector in South Africa, I found out about the Department of Digital Humanities and the work they were doing on the
Desmond Tutu digital archive project. This is a subject close to the hearts of most South Africans, and I realized that King’s was doing groundbreaking research in the digital humanities, and that it would probably be the best place to learn more. So I came to King’s in 2010 to start an
MA in Digital Asset Management, and have stayed on to do a PhD.
I am funding my studies with some grants from South Africa, and a
King’s Alumni Bursary, which has made it much easier to continue at King's. My research is onto digitisation projects in national memory institutions, like libraries, archives and museums.
Being in the department of Digital Humanities is, without doubt, one of the very best places for me to be doing this research for several reasons. My supervisors and other staff members in the department have many years of experience working in these areas. Secondly, the fact that my department works on several large-scale research projects all over Europe means that I have access to materials and expertise that is unique.
During my MA year I worked for some time on the
European Holocaust Research Infrastructure project, which was fascinating and a real education, and I hope to be able to continue working on projects such as this during the rest of my time at King’s. It doesn’t hurt that my department is full of generous, supportive and interesting people, from my fellow PhD cohort to the
teaching and research staff.
Thinking about how the humanities are changing as a result of the possibilities opened up by digital technology will be central to the future of the discipline. I hope to be able to return to South Africa and make a difference there as a result of the cutting-edge skills and experience I am lucky enough to be gaining at King’s.