UCLA Pioneers Nation's First Digital Humanities Degree

UCLA is set to launch the nation's pioneering digital humanities department and bachelor's degree program this fall, marking a significant educational innovation. This new discipline is meticulously crafted to integrate classical humanities subjects, such as history, literature, and global cultures, with sophisticated technical expertise, including statistical analysis, coding, 3D mapping, and data visualization. The overarching goal is to equip students with the tools to critically examine an increasingly digitized and AI-enhanced global landscape.

This multidisciplinary approach directly addresses the growing demand from employers for recent graduates who possess both critical thinking capabilities and the proficiency to leverage new technologies effectively. Furthermore, the major places a strong emphasis on teamwork among students, a highly sought-after skill by hiring managers. Students in the program will delve into how emerging technologies sculpt culture and will gain a deep understanding of the human biases inherently present in these new tools. A central focus is the burgeoning field of generative artificial intelligence; students will be trained in its ethical application while also learning to discern and manage its potential to produce misleading content.

Todd Presner, a UCLA professor of European languages and transcultural studies and co-leader of the initiative to establish this department, highlighted the historical divide between computational subjects and traditional humanities. He asserts that both fields are significantly enriched by their convergence. Presner emphasized the peril of scientists operating without the historical, ethical, and cultural insights offered by the humanities, just as the humanities risk irrelevance if they fail to comprehend contemporary technologies. He has personally taught courses demonstrating how students can explore the inner workings of large language models, the repositories of data used by generative AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT. Students can upload their own training data to smaller models, illustrating the ease with which these systems can be manipulated.

While the digital humanities major is new, UCLA professors have been teaching courses in the discipline for over two decades. It currently stands as the second most popular minor at UCLA, a key factor in the university's decision to elevate it to a full major. Alexandra Minna Stern, dean of the UCLA College Division of Humanities where the department is housed, reported that 750 undergraduate students enrolled in digital humanities courses last academic year. She anticipates 50 to 100 students will declare the major, with hopes of 40 sign-ups in its inaugural year.

The department will commence with 23 faculty members, including lecturers, and four staff members, with aspirations for additional faculty once a current hiring freeze is lifted. Notably, no existing academic units were cut to accommodate the new department. Its faculty draw from diverse fields, including various humanities disciplines, information studies, and data science, meaning classes will be conducted across multiple campus buildings. Stern also highlighted plans for internship opportunities with museums, citing the Wende Museum in Los Angeles—which specializes in digitizing artifacts and oral histories of refugees and dissidents—as an example of the practical, hands-on training students will receive.

Introductory courses within the major are structured around data networks, encompassing statistical reasoning, and cultural studies, such as the symbolic history of Jerusalem or film depictions of antiquity. Upper-division coursework can explore how contemporary technology is shaped by political, cultural, and social forces, or delve into social media data analysis.

Kedaar Sridhar, a 26-year-old UCLA alumnus with a computer science major and a digital humanities minor, exemplifies the program's value. His favorite course in the minor involved analyzing the 'facemask' hashtag on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, using Python and sentiment analysis tools to gauge public sentiment across different countries. Sridhar believes that if he could redo his college education, he would major in digital humanities, perceiving computer science as