Graduate Certificate in Textual and Digital Studies

MA and PhD students in any program at the UW can earn a Graduate Certificate in Textual and Digital Studies.

The certificate is based on completion of 16 total credits. These include:

  • Two courses chosen from the list of core electives for 2023-2024:
    • Autumn 2023
      • TXTDS 503/LIS 572 — Introduction to Data Science: Applications in Library Science and Humanities Research
      • TXTDS 403/ASIAN 498 D — Archives, Data, and Databases: Early Chinese Texts and Their Datafication
      • LIS 508 — History of Recorded Information
    • Winter 2024
      • TXTDS 504 — Texts, Publics, and Publication (offered with TXTDS 404)
      • TXTDS 401 — Text Technologies: Textual Trails. Archival Legacies from Medieval and Early Modern Iberia (offered with SPS 491)
      • MELC 551 — Royal Literature in the Bible and the Ancient Near East
    • Spring 2024
      • TXTDS 413 — Texts, Data and Computation: Introduction to Cultural Analytics (offered with INFO 498)
      • LIS 572 (with TXTDS 503, pending Distance Learning approval) — Introduction to Data Science: Applications in Library Science and Humanities Research
      • MELC 552 — Wisdom Literature in the Bible and the Ancient Near East
  • One open elective, to be chosen in consultation with the student’s TDS advisor. This course will ideally integrate the student’s TDS interests with work in his/her home department.
  • Capstone (1 credit). Participating for one quarter in the Textual Studies Program Colloquium, including presenting a paper that builds on and unifies the work done in TDS courses.
G. Spratt, Circulating Library,
American Antiquarian Society

Important note: As of July 2022, there is no longer a limit to overlapping credits between the graduate certificate and MA degree. For more information, see the Graduate School Memo 43: Graduate Certificates.

Admission: Interested students should apply here (UW ID required). The prerequisite for admission to the TDS Graduate Certificate is good academic standing in a master’s or doctoral program at UW. Please contact either Jeffrey Todd Knight (jtknight@uw.edu) or Geoffrey Turnovsky (gt2@uw.edu) with any questions about your eligibility or other aspects of the program. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Students are encouraged to apply for admission before beginning their coursework.