PhD Digital Arts and Humanities

The PhD (Digital Arts and Humanities) (DAH) is a full-time inter-institutional inter-disciplinary structured PhD programme running over 48 months from the date of first registration for the programme, and is co-ordinated with NUI Galway, Trinity College Dublin, NUI Maynooth, Queen's University Belfast and University of Ulster.

Digital tools offer an opportunity to ask new, often radical, questions about humanities research. The Digital Arts and Humanites PhD programme provides an opportunity for students to explore how "digital" is changing the face of the "arts and humanities". Students on the programme will seek to discover what is it to be human in the digital age, and the answers will help to shape how we see ourselves and others in an age where humanity is becoming increasingly connected by ubiquitous technology.

DAH is a four-year structured doctoral research-training programme designed to enable students to carry out research in the arts and humanities at the highest level using new media and computer technologies. The ever-evolving developments in computing and their performative and analytical implications have brought about a quantum leap in arts and humanities research and practice. Digital Arts and Humanities is a field of study, research, teaching, and invention at the intersection of computing and information management with the arts and humanities. The DAH Structured PhD programme will create the research platform, the structures, partnerships and innovation models by which fourth-level researchers can engage with a wide range of stakeholders in order to contribute to the developing digital arts and humanities community world-wide, as participants and as leaders. The programme will promote advanced practical and academic research in applying innovative models of arts practice and theory, humanities research, archiving, and pedagogy. DAH will provide coherent exposure to transferable skills in digital content creation that will be enabling, academically rigorous and commercially viable. DAH will do so by promoting advanced practical and academic research in the application of new media and computer technologies, and will work with industry partners and cultural institutions to ensure knowledge exchange and career development.

Candidates will choose to enter the program within either the ARTS or the HUMANITIES strands. In both strands they are required to complete core, training and career development modules, including main modules shared across the consortium and others institutionally-based. The overall aim of the taught modules are threefold:

1.     to introduce students to the history and theoretical issues in digital arts/humanities;
2.     to provide the skills needed to apply advanced computational and information management paradigms to humanities/arts research;
3.     to provide an enabling framework for students to develop generic and transferable skills to carry out their final research projects/dissertations.

The aim of the research is to enable students to develop and synthesise a PhD dissertation.

• Year 1 of the four-year programme includes core and optional graduate education modules delivered in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Maynooth. These modules provide grounding in essential research skills and transferable skills together with access to specialist topics. In years 1 and 2 work on PhD research projects is supplemented with access to elective modules.
• Year 3 features practical placements in industry, academic research environments or cultural institutions. 
• Year 4 is fully dedicated to writing up the thesis. 

The College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences (CACSSS) at University College Cork adds unique elements to DAH. UCC staff have wide experience in digital arts and humanities, especially in regard to Irish and European history, literature, culture and music technology.  Some current projects and collaborations in the field at UCC include:

• CELT, a corpus of online texts over 14 million words for Irish history, literature and politics; 
• LOCUS a new Historical Dictionary of Irish place names and tribal names Online; 
• CELTIC DIGITAL INITIATIVE, which aims to make scarce resources (such astexts, images and bibliographies) available in an electronic format to students and scholars;
• ArCH which aims to create a series of facsimile editions online of the major historical Irish manuscripts; 
• Ongoing digitisation of the papers of the world famous Cork-based mathematician George Boole (1815-1864).

In addition, UCC's School of Music is particularly strong in practice-based research in composition and performance using digital media (e.g., computer-based and electronic resources for composition, sound and video art, and improvisation), including ‘mux and mash-ups’. DAH at UCC will be innovative and interdisciplinary, building on our experience of research and teaching in Digital Arts and Humanities over the past 20 years.

PROGRAMME OUTLINE

Students will choose to enter the program within either the ARTS or the HUMANITIES strands. Students registered at UCC in both strands are required to complete core, training and career development modules worth at least 70 credits over the course of the programme. These will be accumulated in the first year by taking two 5-credit core modules shared across the consortium. These core modules, which are specialised in nature, provide advanced training in the specific methodologies of studying digital arts and humanities. For another 10 credits, students will take a shared module plus a local UCC elective specific to either the ARTS or the HUMANITIES.

Students will, in addition, acquire a further 5 credits by taking a standard generic training module from the range of such courses available at UCC, as advised by the DAH Board.

At the end of Year 1, students must thus have undertaken at least 25 credits of coursework, and must have made good progress on developing their thesis topic, and have had their research proposal and preliminary thesis work approved by the DAH board.

In Year 2, UCC students will take two 5 credit modules shared across the ARTS and HUMANITIES strands and convened by the whole consortium. In addition they will take a shared module plus a local UCC elective specific to either the ARTS or the HUMANITIES. Students will, in addition, acquire a further 5 credits by taking a standard generic training module from the range of such courses available at UCC, as advised by the DAH Board. May also be taken in Year 3.

Year one and two are intended, with progressive difficulty, to introduce basic concepts in Humanities and Arts computing, including the development of these concepts since inception, while providing specific examples of procedures, studies and production that have used these techniques, which could furnish models of themes and approaches the course participants might use in their own work. In addition, elective modules are intended to broaden and deepen participants’ specialized knowledge in fields where their projects are located.

In Year 3 a 10-credit job placement and career development module will have to be undertaken, involving a three month professional placement with a cultural or business organisation. In this case, PhD students will gain first-hand experience outside the academic environment, thereby enhancing their skills and career development. In some cases, students with an interest in pursuing academic careers may be provided with an opportunity to enhance their skills set by undertaking academic work such as giving tutorials, generally at their college of registration.

UCC students will in addition take a 5 credit module shared across the ARTS and HUMANITIES strands and convened by the whole consortium. Finally, for another 10 credits they will participate in a Research Colloquium specific to their strand plus a local UCC elective specific to either the ARTS or the HUMANITIES. 

Please click here for details of programme requirements and modules PROGRAMME REQUIREMENTS

In the case of the PhD (Digital Arts and Humanities) (DAH), a candidate must have attained a 2H1 BA (Hons) Degree in an Arts or Humanities subject. In addition, candidates must submit a 1,000 word research proposal demonstrating their writing skills and interest in the area for the approval by the primary supervisor and the relevant University DAH Board.

Students must apply online at www.pac.ie . 

Further information regarding the application process can be found here.

http://www.ucc.ie/en/cacsss/grads/grep/dah/

Applications are also invited for four-year doctoral studentships with the structured PhD programme in Digital Arts and Humanities (DAH). The studentships come with a stipend of 16,000 euro per year. Fees for Irish and EU citizens are fully covered. Fees for non-EU citizens will be determined by individual universities and will be determined by the shortfall between the fee charged for EU citizens and the fee for non-EU students. Successful candidates will be registered with the full-time interdisciplinary structured PhD programme co-ordinated with an all-Irish university consortium. Studentships are provided at Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork, National University of Ireland, Galway, and National University of Ireland, Maynooth. The Royal Irish Academy and the Northern Ireland universities, Queen’s University Belfast and University of Ulster, contribute teaching but do not provide funded studentships.  The studentships are available from September 2011. Applications for studentships must be submitted durectly to The College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences (CACSSS) at University College Cork. For informal discussion, please contact Professor Brendan Dooley.

For further enquiries,
please contact:
Professor Brendan Dooley
Email: b.dooley@ucc.ie
Tel no.: 00.353.21.4902441