Tufts University - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
MA in Digital Tools for Premodern StudiesMedford, USA
DEGREE TYPE
MA
DURATION
2 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline
EARLIEST START DATE
Request earliest start date
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Key Summary
Scholarships
Explore scholarship opportunities to help fund your studies
Introduction
The MA in Digital Tools for Premodern Studies is designed for students wishing to gain a deeper knowledge of the humanities and apply computational methods in their research and teaching. Students study the creation, transmission, preservation, and transformation of knowledge across time and culture from Antiquity to the Renaissance and the early modern period using computerized techniques.
Program Objectives
- Students will have developed the ability to conduct research and write a graduate-level research paper and/or thesis.
- Students will have developed a broad knowledge of research and practice in the field of Digital Humanities as well as a deeper focus in a particular area within the Premodern World relevant to student interest.
- Students will have developed a strong competency in one or more pre-modern languages, such as Latin and Greek or other historical languages depending upon their background and goals, and have been exposed to new methods of learning and using the languages. (eg. intensive linguistic annotation, analyzing a text at scale and visualizing the results).
- Students will have gained reading knowledge of a modern foreign language relevant to research in the field.
- Students will have been exposed to new developments in the fields of Digital Humanities and the Pre-Modern area on which they focus.
- Students will be prepared to go on to advanced graduate programs or to positions outside academia where the skills they have acquired in the MA are useful.
Program Outcome
As a graduate student in the Digital Tools for Premodern Studies master's program, you will gain a broad interdisciplinary perspective of the humanities while developing a research portfolio in hands-on classes and labs. By the end of your studies, you will have acquired familiarity with advanced research in the humanities and a range of computerized methods for data collection, formatting, analysis, annotation, and display.
Many graduates have gone on to attend PhD programs and pursue careers in academia, while others have gone on to work in the fields of publishing, media, and technology.
Gallery
Curriculum
11 courses are required for the MA in Digital Tools for Premodern Studies as outlined below.
Students are required to complete a research project equivalent in scope to a master's thesis. This project will fulfill 3 class credits, one was usually taken in the fall of the second year of the program, and the other two in the spring. This project is conducted and evaluated from two perspectives which illustrate two complementary sets of skills, namely the production of good data and the appropriate and insightful analysis of that data. For this reason, the project may have a single deliverable similar in scope to a thesis, or two deliverables similar in scope to Qualifying Papers. This project may originate from coursework, and students are encouraged to start elaborating on their project during their first year, in any case no later than the summer before their second year. A thesis committee must be constituted and a defense scheduled.
Reading knowledge of Latin and Greek and one modern foreign language (usually German or French) is tested by examination. Latin or Greek may be replaced with another language, in which case the other language must be approved upon enrollment in the program.
A comprehensive written examination integrating coursework with knowledge of the reading lists in Greek and Latin literature or other approved language is required.
Course Requirements
- Two courses devoted to a common core:
- COMP 5/CLS 160: Computational Methods for the Humanities
- COMP 10: Computer Science for All
- COMP 5/CLS 160: Computational Methods for the Humanities
- COMP 10: Computer Science for All
- Two courses selected from advanced offers in classical literature (Latin, Greek, Sanskirt, or another approved language)
- Four elective courses were selected from a preapproved list. Courses must be chosen from at least two different departments or programs and can be chosen according to students' particular academic and vocational interests and needs.
- Three courses will be devoted to a research project. Please see above.
Exams
- Two languages: Latin or Greek or another approved language
- Foreign language (German or French)
- Comprehensive exam