CDH Launches Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities

This fall, Princeton University graduate students engaged in digital humanities will have the opportunity to earn a formal qualification: a Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities.

The Certificate, administered by the Center for Digital Humanities, will serve to educate and credential the next generation of humanities researchers in cutting-edge theories, methods, and computational approaches that are transforming fields ranging from medieval history to media studies. Certificate students will be primed for careers on the tenure track as well a broader range of positions in cultural heritage institutions, industry or the public sphere.

“Graduate students have always played a vital role in data-driven and computational humanities at Princeton,” explained CDH Faculty Director Meredith Martin. “We are thrilled to be able to give them a certificate for their expertise and also recognize that this shows Princeton’s larger commitment to interdisciplinarity in the broader data science landscape, where humanistic approaches to data science are considered the gold standard.”

To earn the Certificate, students must take at least two graduate-level courses: a new “Data in the Humanities” course to be launched in spring 2024; and, consistent with the CDH’s commitment to interdisciplinarity, an elective course outside their home department. Courses offered through the Inter-University Doctoral Consortium, which includes neighboring institutions like Columbia University and Rutgers University, may also qualify.

In addition to completing coursework, certificate students must demonstrate proficiency in critical-data and media theories or data-driven methodologies relevant to the humanities in their dissertation and participate in a CDH-sponsored colloquium. Pedagogy and project management workshops will also be available to certificate students.

The Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities is the most recent addition to the CDH’s lineup of graduate-specific opportunities. In its nine-year history, the CDH has worked with hundreds of graduate students representing every division except the natural sciences. Students from each humanities department and from sociology, anthropology, history, politics, architecture, and computer science have found collaboration at the CDH.

The CDH has introduced PhD students to the Princeton DH community through Graduate Fellowships, offered hands-on project management experience through Project Management Fellowships, and funded DH education outside of Princeton through Graduate Training Grants, among other opportunities and programming. Graduate students may also apply for Data Fellowships where they learn best practices in humanities data work alongside faculty, staff, and postdoctoral fellows.

“From year-long Graduate Fellowships in the CDH’s first few years to the more expansive cohorts of Graduate Fellows who have found community on B Floor [of Firestone Library], to countless University Administrative Fellows and student-led special interest groups and collaborations, we have long collaborated with up and coming scholars,” Martin noted. “We see graduate students as our colleagues and peers, and their input and influence has positive impact on faculty projects, where graduate students have long trained to serve as project managers.”

Graduate students interested in learning more about the new Certificate are invited to attend a Graduate Certificate Information Session on September 27 from 2 to 3 p.m. on B Floor of Firestone Library or on Zoom (RSVP). An application for the Graduate Certificate will be available in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, questions about the Graduate Certificate should be directed to Digital Humanities Strategist Grant Wythoff.