top of page
Research Postgraduate Programme
MPhil and PhD in Humanities and Digital Technologies
Overview
The Faculty of Arts at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) offers two research postgraduate (RPg) programmes in the discipline of Humanities and Digital Technologies (HDT):
Master of Philosophy (MPhil): 24 months full-time, 36 months part-time
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD): 36 months full-time, 54 months part-time (3-year); or 48 months full-time, 72 months part-time (4-year)
Prospective MPhil and PhD students may designate HDT as their primary discipline or add HDT as an area of emphasis within another RPg programme offered by the Faculty of Arts. For example, a PhD candidate who is interested in computational literary studies has the following options:
-
PhD in Humanities and Digital Technologies: HDT is the primary discipline
-
PhD(HDT) in English: the primary discipline is English, with HDT as an area of emphasis
-
PhD(HDT) in Comparative Literature: the primary discipline is Comparative Literature, with HDT as an area of emphasis
-
PhD(HDT) in Chinese Language and Literature: the primary discipline is Chinese Language and Literature, with HDT as an area of emphasis
Admission
For more details, please refer to the HKU Graduate School website:
https://gradsch.hku.hk/prospective_students/application/how_to_apply
Potential Supervisors
Prof. Anya Adair: digital humanities, book history, Old and Middle English literature, premodern English legal history
Prof. Javier Cha: digital history, critical infrastructure studies, premodern Korea, intellectual history
Prof. Peter Cobb: digital archaeology, Armenia and Near Eastern archaeology, experiential learning
Prof. Christophe Coupé: computational linguistics, language diversity and evolution
Prof. Tara J Lee: digital humanities, 18th and 19th century British literature
Prof. Nicholas YH Wong: computational literary studies, China and Southeast Asia, transnationalism and diaspora
Requirements
Students are required to complete two compulsory seminars, HUDT6001 and HUDT6002, and are strongly encouraged to take one elective course at the intersection of digital humanities and their area of expertise, in consultation with their research supervisor, The seminars for HDT qualification are to be taken in lieu of the research methods and thesis writing courses offered by the Graduate School.
HUDT6001 Theoretical Foundations of Humanities and Digital Technologies
This seminar surveys the field of digital humanities, charting the discourses and debates that have shaped its key subfields and adjacent disciplines—computational literary studies, digital history, cultural analytics, digital art history, and critical infrastructure studies. Students will consider the transition from primarily print-based to digital scholarship, what distinguishes digital, computational, and quantitative methods, and shifting contours of research due to the advent of transformer-based machine learning. Particular attention will be paid to how digital humanists have woven information science and computing into their scholarly workflows—critically, reflectively, and, at times, contentiously.
The assessment will be by 50% response paper, 25% final oral examination and 25 % final written examination.
HUDT6002 Computational Methods for Humanities and Digital Technologies
This seminar introduces the digital tools and computational methods widely used in the digital humanities, including Python programming, database design, web scraping, text mining, geospatial mapping, network analysis, and machine learning. Students will learn a range of techniques for acquiring, managing, exploring, and analysing collections derived from literary texts, historical sources, bibliographic records, maps, visual materials, and other forms of structured and unstructured data. Each topic is accompanied by a set of lab exercises and project-based modules designed to develop technical fluency while fostering critical reflection on the role of computation in humanities research.
The assessment will be by 50% digital literacy and coding proficiency tests and 50% final project.
Graduate School courses
The Graduate School also requires a number of short courses, which usually include Responsible Conduct of Research, Research Methods, Transferrable Skills, and Thesis Writing. Please check the Graduate School website for the latest requirements and course listings.
Course Exemption
Students who have successfully completed the required course(s) or equivalent(s), at either HKU or a comparable institution, may apply for course exemption. Possessing full-time work experience for at least 6 months may fulfill the exemption criteria for the Transferable Skills requirement. Exemptions are subject to the approval of the Graduate School on a case-by-case basis. More information is available on the Graduate School website.
Research Proposal
If you wish to apply for MPhil or PhD studies at HKU with HDT as your primary discipline, submit a research proposal of 1,500 words (excluding the bibliography). Your proposal should present a clearly defined topic, a literature review, a discussion of its originality and significance, and a bibliography.
The HDT discipline does not assume or require any prior coding or technical experience. However, if you have relevant skills or have completed coursework, you are encouraged to mention them.
Your proposal should demonstrate engagement with a specific issue or debate in an existing subfield of the digital humanities. A good starting point is the reading list maintained by Professor Javier Cha.
Link: https://bigdatastudies.net/readings/
bottom of page