Course summary

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (October/November 2021). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas. This course introduces students to the full range of issues which arise when digital tools and methods are applied to traditional humanistic scholarship, and equips students with the tools and knowledge to surmount those challenges, enabling them to develop a digitally-enhanced scholarly project of their own. The course will equip you to lead and manage digital projects in and outside the strictly academic domain, and provide you with the expertise to progress to innovative doctoral research projects. Paper 1 This core paper provides a systematic overview of every stage of a digital project and its data life-cycle. Each topic is illustrated by ongoing work in one or more of Oxford's flagship digital scholarship projects, the key problems they have encountered and the solutions they have developed. As such, the series also serves to introduce students to the Division's major projects in the field, with a view to choosing the practicum placement and the dissertation topic. Paper 2 Methods of Digital Scholarship, running in the first term, will require you to choose two Technical Options Papers which provide the hands-on training needed to equip students with specific methods relevant to their project. Paper 3 You will choose a Subject-Specific Paper to provide graduate-level work of a more traditional kind in each student's 'home discipline' in the second term. The option will be selected from a list of existing master's papers available in the faculties of the Humanities Division. Paper 4 The fourth element is a practicum placement in which you will gain experience developing your proposed research topic while working within Oxford's vast array of flagship Digital Scholarship projects and planning their own research projects with potential supervisors. Paper 5 All of this work culminates in the dissertation, which is formulated flexibly to encourage both traditional academic prose and non-traditional digital outputs. You will work closely with a supervisor, starting at the end of Michaelmas term and continuing through Hilary term, though the bulk of the work will be concentrated in Trinity (summer) term. Further information If your application is successful, it is recommended that you take an open-access online course Humanities Research in the Digital Age (developed by the Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership) before the MSc begins to ensure that you have comprehensive background knowledge of the field. Supervision The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the steering committee for the MSc in Digital Scholarship in consultation with faculties in the Humanities Division, and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Under exceptional circumstances, a supervisor may be found outside the Humanities Division. Each student will be given the opportunity to participate in an optional career mentor system in which they are paired with one of Oxford's renowned digital scholars with whom they can discuss and seek advice on their own careers.