Foundations of digital humanities
Summary
This course introduces the core concepts and methodologies of Digital Humanities, integrating both theoretical and practical perspectives. Students learn to work with large-scale cultural datasets, acquiring the tools and techniques required for their processing, analysis, and interpretation.
Content
This course provides an introduction to the fundamental concepts and methods of Digital Humanities, combining both theoretical and applied perspectives. It offers a comprehensive overview of how large-scale cultural datasets are processed, analysed, and modelled.
The course is structured in three parts:
Part I: Pipelines introduces technical workflows for digitising and modelling cultural materials such as written documents (printed and handwritten), photographs of artworks, maps, and 3D models.
Part II: Algorithms presents key algorithmic approaches used in Digital Humanities, encompassing both symbolic methods (Semantic Web, constraint-based reasoning) and subsymbolic methods (deep learning, large language models).
Part III: Platform Management examines the infrastructure and governance of cultural data platforms, including the management of data, users, and autonomous agents.
Ethical and societal implications are addressed throughout the course. Students gain hands-on experience by working directly with cultural datasets from large-scale research projects currently conducted at EPFL.
Keywords
Digital Humanities, Digital History, Digital Art History, Digitisation, Document Processing, Deep Learning, Large Language Models, Archives, Text, Image, Maps, 3D.
Learning Prerequisites
Recommended courses
Bachelor Course in Digital Humanities (SHS, HUM-369)
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, the student must be able to:
- Produce Analysis and Interpretation of Large Scale Cultural Datasets
- Plan the different steps of the Digital Humanities Project
- Use Digital Humanities tools and libraries
Transversal skills
- Make an oral presentation.
- Manage priorities.
- Respect relevant legal guidelines and ethical codes for the profession.
- Set objectives and design an action plan to reach those objectives.
- Assess progress against the plan, and adapt the plan as appropriate.
- Collect data.
- Access and evaluate appropriate sources of information.
- Write a scientific or technical report.
Teaching methods
Lectures, projects
Expected student activities
Participation in class
Group work.
Assessment methods
- (Group work) Project (60%)
- (Individual work) Exam on Course Content (40%)
Resources
Notes/Handbook
A 300+ page textbook is available.
Websites
Moodle Link
In the programs
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Foundations of digital humanities
- Courses: 4 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Project: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: mandatory
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Foundations of digital humanities
- Courses: 4 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Project: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: mandatory
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Foundations of digital humanities
- Courses: 4 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Project: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Foundations of digital humanities
- Courses: 4 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Project: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Foundations of digital humanities
- Courses: 4 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Project: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Foundations of digital humanities
- Courses: 4 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Project: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Foundations of digital humanities
- Courses: 4 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Project: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional