This course offers a practical and dynamic introduction to the digital methods and projects transforming research and practice in the humanities. Students will investigate both canonical and cutting-edge projects in digital humanities, inspiring them with the possibilities for inquiry and exploration that digital technologies enable. They will work with digital cultural heritage collections and social media data, employing approaches including data modelling, computational text analysis, data visualisation, network analysis, machine learning, geospatial analysis, and digital storytelling. The course's immersive approach provides both conceptual grounding and practical experience in a range of digital tools and techniques, supporting students in developing a thoughtful, ethical, critical, and interdisciplinary approach to digital humanities research and practice.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- develop the confidence and capacity to trial, up-skill and evaluate a range of digital tools and methods;
- critically analyse and evaluate digital humanities projects, understanding their methods, arguments, contributions and implications;
- apply digital methods thoughtfully and ethically to understand digital cultural heritage and social media contexts; and
- create and effectively communicate convincing arguments using digital methods, demonstrating the ability to combine technical and critical thinking skills to address humanities research questions.
Work Integrated Learning
Projects
Students undertake projects relevant to real-world professional contexts including developing digital archives, creating data visualisations, and performing computational text analyses. Students are expected to critically evaluate not only their computational tools, but also the data they work with, and to create a new digital resource that has been thoughtfully developed with a critical understanding of how both society and technology affect it. Students engage with digital cultural heritage materials, gaining direct experience of industry-relevant challenges and practices for working with cultural institutions, libraries, or archives.
Other Information
No specific prior knowledge or technical skills are required, this course welcomes students from a range of diverse disciplinary backgrounds.
Indicative Assessment
- Critical evaluation of a digital project (1000 words) (25) [LO 2]
- Critical project with a digital method or tool (1000 words) (25) [LO 1]
- Essay or digital project and exegesis (3000 words equivalent) (40) [LO 1,2,3,4]
- Class participation (10) [LO 1,2,3]
The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
Workload
130 hours of total student learning time made up from:
a) 36 hours of contact over 12 weeks of weekly seminars
b) 94 hours of independent student research, reading and writing.
Prescribed Texts
NA
Preliminary Reading
Drucker, Johanna. (2021) The Digital Humanities Coursebook. Routledge, 2021.
Crymble, Adam (2012-). The Programming Historian. http://programminghistorian.org
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 14
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.
Winter Session
| Class number | Class start date | Last day to enrol | Census date | Class end date | Mode Of Delivery | Class Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6395 | 01 Jul 2026 | TBA | TBA | 30 Sep 2026 | In Person | N/A |