Digital Humanities Ignites

The Velvet-Glove Disruptor: A Revolution in Digital Humanities at UCLA

In a move that signals the dawn of a new era in academic innovation, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is set to launch the nation's first digital humanities department and bachelor's degree this fall. This bold initiative brings together technological tools for statistical analysis, coding, 3D mapping, and data visualization with traditional humanities subjects like history, literature, and global cultures.

The marriage of classical humanities with technical know-how is a multidisciplinary approach to education that capitalizes on employers' growing desire for recent graduates who can think critically while harnessing new technology. The major requires a great deal of teamwork among students, another skill hiring managers seek. This fusion of disciplines will equip students with the skills to navigate the increasingly complex digital landscape.

Todd Presner, a UCLA professor of European languages and transcultural studies, co-led the effort to create the digital humanities department. He emphasized that contemporary culture has witnessed a rift between computational subjects and traditional humanities, and both are enhanced by merging the two. "It's actually at our own peril when scientists are not speaking to folks in the humanities with historical knowledge, ethical knowledge, cultural knowledge, right?" he said. "And at the same time, I'd say when the humanities are not understanding the technologies in the world today, they also could be seen as irrelevant."

The digital humanities department will launch with 23 faculty members, including lecturers, and four staff members. The introductory courses will focus on data networks, such as statistical reasoning, and courses on culture, such as the symbolic history of Jerusalem or film depictions of antiquity. Upper division courses can center on how contemporary technology is shaped by political, cultural, and social forces or a class on social media data analysis.

Kedaar Sridhar, 26, graduated from UCLA in 2022 with a computer science major and a minor in digital humanities. He credits the minor with landing him an internship at Microsoft. All applicants knew computer science, but digital humanities distinguished him, he said. An interviewer asked what the minor entailed, and he said "it's human-centered data storytelling, working with groups, working in projects, getting a tangible outcome." The interviewer said that's what they're looking for.

Sridhar has co-founded his own company, Grantlytics, an AI-based platform focused on helping nonprofits fundraise by writing proposals, finding funding opportunities, and identifying promising donors. As an employer, he's looking for much of what the digital humanities major offers. Without it, Sridhar would prefer a candidate with a humanities and coding or math background. But digital humanities "automatically is that interdisciplinary nature because it combines those two worlds together."

Recent survey data backs Sridhar's preference. Hiring managers who recruit recent college graduates indicated this year that these workers are mostly employable, but with caveats. The annual survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers shows that the skills recent graduates are most proficient in aren't what employers prioritize most.

For example, 99% of hiring managers say oral and written communication and persuasion skills are important. But the same hiring managers indicated that just 55% of recent college graduates score well in communication skills. The same goes for critical thinking: Around 94% of hiring managers rate this competency highly but they report that just half of recent graduates are able to gather data from diverse sources and draw conclusions or work well in a fast-paced setting.

Where recent graduates do better is in technology, but hiring managers care slightly less about those. About 75% of employers place high importance on adapting to new technology or using tech to achieve company goals; they say that about 65% of recent grads are competent in that skillset.

Alexandra Minna Stern, dean of the UCLA College Division of Humanities where digital humanities is based, knows things are tough for humanities departments. The share of U.S. college students majoring in fields such as literature, history, philosophy, and foreign languages is at a historic nadir — just 8% of degrees conferred were in the humanities, down from nearly 15% nearly two decades ago. However, she notes that "an art history grad is more likely to get a job these days than a computer science grad," citing data tracked by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

As the digital landscape continues to evolve at breakneck speed, it's clear that UCLA's new major in digital humanities will be a game-changer. By combining technological tools with traditional humanities subjects, this innovative program will equip students with the skills to navigate the increasingly complex digital landscape and thrive in an era where human-centered data storytelling is king.