CSSH Graduate Programs General Regulations
The Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities allows students to pursue an organized course of study in digital humanities with the interdisciplinary faculty of the NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks. This certificate can be completed both by Northeastern University doctoral and master's students in the course of their existing program of study as well as those seeking a stand-alone certificate.
Digital humanities is an emerging field of research that is interdisciplinary in scope and collaborative in nature. The field is developing in relation to new digital technologies that have changed the objects of study, methods, and opportunities for research and teaching in existing humanities fields. Digitized texts are now read and accessed in new ways; digitized corpora of texts make possible new modes of quantitative and qualitative analysis (including “distant reading,” text mining, mapping, and network analysis); born digital objects constitute new primary sources in need of humanistic theorization, approaches, and critical vocabularies; and modes of encoding, aggregating, and connecting texts enable the creation of new archival resources that are changing our understanding of the archive itself as well as revealing new historical, literary, and cultural patterns.
The field is new and developing rapidly. Many students are eager for training in this area—both because DH is at the cutting edge of disciplinary work and because it offers new opportunities for employment within the academy and outside of it.
Academic Standing/Progress
Students in the program are monitored for academic progress. Those students whose grade-point average falls below a 3.000 are notified by and meet with the director of academic programs. They are counseled that if their GPA does not rise to a 3.000 or higher, they run the risk of not graduating and are advised on strategies for improvement.
Final Project
The student will complete a final independent DH research project located in the student’s home program (such as a thesis, or a portion thereof) or participation in a collaborative DH project with substantial student participation. The final project will be overseen by the NULab faculty members teaching the NULab project seminar during its development; NULab workshop instructors will advise students on their projects and help students get guidance from other faculty as appropriate. Final projects will be submitted with three components: the project itself, a written project description of about 3,000 words, and a presentation to the NULab community. The DH certificate committee will formally approve all final projects.
Complete all courses and requirements listed below unless otherwise indicated.
Core Requirements
Course List | Code | Title | Hours |
| ENGL 7370 | Introduction to Digital Humanities | 4 |
| or HIST 7370 | Texts, Maps, and Networks: Readings and Methods for Digital History |
| 4 |
| NULab Project Seminar | |
Elective
Course List | Code | Title | Hours |
| 4 |
| Information Design Studio 1: Principles | |
| Research Methods for Design | |
| Information Visualization Principles and Practices | |
| Natural Language Processing | |
| Information Visualization: Theory and Applications | |
| Visualization for Network Science | |
| Special Topics in Data Science | |
| Topics in Literature and other Disciplines (consult an advisor for applicable topics) | |
| Topics in Digital Humanities (consult an advisor for applicable topics) | |
| Topics in Cultural History (consult an advisor for applicable topics) | |
| Space and Place | |
| Topics in Public History (consult an advisor for applicable topics) | |
| Topics in American History (consult an advisor for applicable topics) | |
| Introduction to Computational Statistics | |
| Information Design and Visual Analytics | |
| Documenting Fieldwork Narratives: Oral History, Ethnography, Archival Practices | |
| Analyzing Complex Digitized Data | |
| Fundamentals of Digital Journalism | |
| Telling Your Story with Data | |
| Seminar in Investigative Reporting | |
| Social Networks | |
| Geographic Information Systems for Urban and Regional Policy | |
Program Credit/GPA Requirements
Minimum 12 total semester hours required
Minimum 3.000 GPA required
