Undergraduate students can pursue a minor in the interdisciplinary study of the history, present, and future of texts — from scrolls, manuscripts, and printed books to archival documents, digital texts, and textual data.
Students can explore how texts have been written, published, read, circulated, and archived from antiquity to today. Courses include hands-on work with historical texts, archival sources, and contemporary artists’ books, as well as with methods for editing, digitizing, exhibiting, and publishing texts. Students will also gain experience building and analyzing text-oriented databases and archives.
The minor will be of interest to students thinking about further studies or careers in editing and publishing, libraries and library science, archives and cultural institutions, and in contexts that involve working with cultural and literary texts in digital and/or archival environments.
Requirements
25 credits, including:
— At least 2 courses from the core sequence of courses (click on course title to see course in MyPlan):
- TXTDS 401 Text Technologies (5, max. 10) A&H/SSc
- TXTDS 402 Book Arts (5, max. 10) A&H
- TXTDS 403 Archives, Data, and Databases (5, max. 10) A&H/SSc
- TXTDS 404 Texts, Publics and Publication (5, max. 10) A&H/SSc
- TXTDS 413 Texts, Data, and Computation (5, max. 10) A&H/RSN
- TXTDS 414 Digital Editing and Text Processing for Publication (5, max. 10) A&H/SSc.
— 2 additional courses from our list of approved electives. These include any of the core courses above (which may be repeated once). And courses from the list below. This list is regularly updated. Other courses may count as well towards the elective requirement, if they are relevant. Please contact us with any questions.
— And TXTDS 405 Capstone. The capstone entails a project — an edition, exhibit, traditional research paper, portfolio, or another type of project pertinent to the topics and goals of the minor, including potentially an internship — undertaken over the course of a quarter, under the guidance of a chosen faculty advisor or a librarian. The capstone can be completed in any quarter, including the summer. Check out more information about the TXTDS capstone at the capstone page.
Courses for the academic year are posted here (keep in mind that there can be changes to this schedule).
*** Declared minors will be automatically added to a group with priority registration in the first part of Period I. If you are not yet a declared minor but have concrete plans to declare the minor (such as an appointment with an advisor), please let us know. We can add you to this group.
How to sign up?
The Textual Studies and Digital Humanities is an open interdisciplinary minor, with no prerequisites. You can sign up for the minor at any point. You sign up for the minor with your major advisor. Instructions for signing up for minors at the UW, along with answers to other questions at the Undergraduate Advising Minors page.
Questions, Contacts, and Advising
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If you have questions about the minor — about the requirements; the courses (their content; when they are scheduled; concerns about getting a seat); how to sign up for the minor; what to do for the capstone and when to do it, etc. — you can write to Geoffrey Turnovsky or text@uw.edu. We try to keep the page of current and upcoming courses as up to date as possible. But reach out if you have any questions.
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The Textual Studies and Digital Humanities Minor is advised by Humanities Academic Services. If you have questions relating to your degree audit, to requirements, and to fitting minor courses in with your overall course load, you can schedule an appointment with one of the advisors here.
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For up-to-date information about the minor, the requirements and TXTDS courses, as well as events and opportunities relevant to undergraduates in the minor or interested in the minor, sign up for our TXTDS minor mailing list.
Electives
*** Any of TXTDS 401, 402, 403, 404, 413 and 414 can count towards the elective requirement if taken beyond the 2 course core requirement.
TXTDS 200 Gateway to Textual Studies and Digital Humanities: Books Unbound [Offered SPR 2026. ]
TXTDS 201 Practicum in Textual Studies and Digital Humanities [Offered SPR 2026. ]
TXTDS 220 Making Manuscripts: Manuscript and Handwriting Technologies from Antiquity to Today [Offered WI 2025. See MyPlan]
TXTDS 221 Artificial Intelligence and Human Creativity in Historical Perspective [Offered AU 2025. See MyPlan]
TXTDS 222/FRENCH 222 Human and Machine Translation [Offered WIN 2026. See MyPlan]
TXTDS 224 Histories and Futures of the Book, Texts, and Reading [Offered SP 2024. See MyPlan]
TXTDS 267 Data Science and the Humanities [Offered WI 2025. See MyPlan]
TXTDS 320 Ancient Media [Offered AU 2026. ]
TXTDS 321 Text Reuse, Artificial Intellectual and the Art of Stealing [Offered . ]
TXTDS 322 Translation, Adaptation and Textual Travels [Offered WI 2027. ]
FRENCH 222 Human and Machine Translation [Offered SP 2024. See MyPlan]
FRENCH 224 Histories and Futures of the Book, Texts, and Reading [Offered SP 2024. See MyPlan]
FRENCH 379 French and Francophone Cultural and Literary History through Digital Archives and Tools [Offered AU 2024. See MyPlan]
JSIS A 224 Histories and Futures of the Book, Texts, and Reading [Offered SP 2024. See MyPlan]
ENGL 225 Shakespeare [Offered WI 2025. See MyPlan]
ENGL 266 Literature and Technology [Offered AU 2022. See MyPlan]
ENGL 267 Introduction to Data Science in the Humanities [Offered WI 2025. See MyPlan]
ENGL 309 Theories of Reading [Offered AU 2022. See MyPlan]
ENGL 322 Medieval and Early Modern Literatures of Encounter [Offered SP 2025. See MyPlan]
ART H 400 Art History and Criticism: Haiti and Print Culture in the Age of Revolution [Offered AU 2025. See My Plan]
ASIAN 404 Writing Systems [Offered SP 2024. See MyPlan]
ASIAN 498 Special Topics: Early Chinese Texts and their Datafication [Offered AU 2025. See MyPlan]
ITAL 262 Dante’s Divine Comedy [Offered AU 2023. See MyPlan]
ITAL 355 Culture Politics, and Media in Italy [Offered AU 2022. See MyPlan]
ITAL 354 Travels, Migrations, and Exile: Encounters with the Other in Textual and Digital Archives [Offered WI AU 2025. See MyPlan]
SCAND 270 Sagas of the Vikings [Offered AU 2025. See MyPlan]
SCAND 330 Scandinavian Mythology [Offered SP 2025; SU 2025. See MyPlan]
SCAND 372 Old Norse-Icelandic [Offered SP 2025. See MyPlan]
GERM 243 Fairy Tale and Fantasy [Offered SP 2025. See MyPlan]
HSTCMP 202 World Wars I and II Digital Histories [Offered AU 2022. See MyPlan]
HSTCMP 292 Exploring History through New Media and Technologies [Offered AU 2022. See MyPlan]
AFRAM 360 Black Digital Studies [Offered AU 2025. See MyPlan]
MELC 211 Introduction to Myths of the Ancient Middle East [Offered SP 2025. ]
MELC 286 Themes in Middle Eastern Literature: Middle East Illustrated (offered in 22-23) [Offered AU 2025. See My Plan]
MELC 340 Translation Studies: Gulliver’s Travels Among Muslims and Jews [Offered SP 2025. See My Plan]
MELC 351 Royal Literature in the Bible and the Ancient Near East: Rebels, Kings, and Wanderers [Offered WI 2024. See MyPlan]
MELC 352 Wisdom Literature in the Bible and the Ancient Near East: Rebels, Kings, and Wanderers [Offered WI 2024. See MyPlan]
MELC 371 Love and Empire [Offered SP 2023. See My Plan]
MELC 485 Digital Media: The Middle East and Central Asia [Offered AU 2022. See MyPlan]
CHID 370 The Cultural Impact of Information Technology [Offered AU 2022. See MyPlan]
INFO 198 AI Fundamentals [Offered SP 2026. See MyPlan]
INFO 357 The Record of All of Us [Offered AU 2025. See MyPlan]