Course Overview
Key digital developments, such as increasing volumes of available data, the automation of data collection, and the critical adoption of digital and computational methods across the humanities and social sciences have had profound effects not only on academic research but also on what qualifies as knowledge. This course offers an introduction to digital methods and practical experience of how to use a range of digital tools, techniques, and software to study culture and society. You will explore how digital methods and methodologies have shifted and changed over time, including their affordances and limitations. You will be introduced to state-of-the-art approaches (visual methods, geospatial methods, text analysis, data visualisation, sensing AI methods, and creative AI methods) and have a chance to apply them to create, analyse, and question data. You will also explore the usefulness of digital methods for your own research projects as well as the methods’ ethical and open-science implications.
The Digital Methods course was genuinely transformative - I’ve learned so much in five days, and I’m so excited to apply my new skills to my research (Attendee, 2025)
Taster session
On Thursday 5 March we will hold an online taster session.
In this session, you will get the opportunity to meet The Digital Humanities team, learn more about the course, the different digital methods included and how the summer school course could benefit your research.
Course Leads
The course is taught by the core team of the Centre for Digital Humanities, Cultures and Media based in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures. The Centre brings together staff, students, and external partners who work at the intersection of the humanities, social sciences, and technology. With one of the largest concentrations of humanities scholars in the UK, a long tradition of innovation, and an outstanding pool of computational expertise, The University of Manchester is harnessing cutting-edge digital methods and technology to address new research challenges across the humanities and social sciences. Dr. Giulia Grisot is a Lecturer in Digital Humanities. Her work focuses on how humans process and understand language and literature, with a particular interest in empirical and computational approaches, including distant reading, eye-tracking, stylistics, and reader response. Dr. Sam Hind is a Lecturer in Digital Media and Culture. His research interests include machine vision and machine learning cultures, tech innovation and competitions, and creative AI methods. Dr. Ashley Mattheis is a Lecturer in Digital Media and Culture. Dr. Luca Scholz is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities and History. He is interested in analysing and questioning data in historical and humanistic inquiry. Dr. Łukasz Szulc is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Media and Culture. He specialises in critical and cultural studies of digital media at the intersections of gender, sexuality, and transnationalism, currently working on dating cultures.
Course Objectives
This course's aim is to introduce participants to several key digital methods and support you to critically reflect on their affordances and limitations. By the end of the course, you should be able to:
- Analyse and critique how digital methods and methodologies are used to generate and question knowledge
- Assess and evaluate a range of digital technologies for particular research questions
- Apply a range of digital tools to offer novel perspectives on important cultural and social issues
- Compare and contrast different digital research methods, their advantages and limitations
- Critically reflect on the ethical and open-science implications of using digital methods
Preparatory work or pre-requisites
There are a number of helpful resources which it would be helpful to access prior to the course. You will also be required to bring along your own laptop with relevant software installed, any required adaptors. Some sessions will require you to register for GenAI accounts.
Who should attend?
This is an introductory course that is aimed at PhD students and Early Career Researchers as well as other more experienced researchers in humanities and social sciences or working in industry who would like to expand their methodological toolkit to include digital methods.
Course Timetable
This course will take place in-person Monday 6 July - Friday 10 July
1:30 - 5:00pm Monday
Introduction (all staff members, led by Łukasz Szulc) Visual methods (Ashley Mattheis) This session will provide an introduction to a multi-modal method for analysing visual materials online, an approach that is useful for interpretive studies of digital cultural artefacts such as pictures, memes, and videos.
9:00 - 12:30pm Tuesday
Sensing AI methods (Sam Hind) This session will introduce students to the world of sensing AI methods, and the possibilities of programming DIY devices to train a machine learning model based on movement data. Participants will have the chance to program BBC micro:bit devices using a simple online interface, with no programming skills required.
1:30 - 5:00pm Tuesday
Creative AI methods (Sam Hind) This session will introduce students to generative AI as ‘fabulation devices’ and how tools like Gemini, ChatGPT and SUNO can be used critically and creatively. Participants will have the opportunity to experiment with three different creative AI methods: critical prompting, synthetic images, and synth sounds. The approaches build on a long history of creative methods used across the social sciences and humanities.
9:00 - 12:30pm Wednesday
Text analysis with R 1: Introduction (Giulia Grisot) This beginner-friendly session will introduce the fundamentals of text mining, guiding participants through key concepts such as word frequency and text structure. No prior experience with R is required, as we will walk through the basics of using R and RStudio for textual analysis.
1:30 - 5:00pm Wednesday
Text analysis with R 2: Sentiment Analysis (Giulia Grisot) Expanding on the morning session, we will explore how to analyse sentiment in text and create visual representations of language patterns. Participants will be introduced to simple R scripts, with step-by-step guidance to make text analysis accessible even for those new to coding.
9:00 - 12:30pm Thursday
Data visualisation (Luca Scholz) This session will introduce students to key principles of data visualisation applicable to a wide range of topics across the humanities and social sciences. No prior technical skills are required to participate in this session.
1:30 - 5:00pm Thursday
Geospatial methods (Luca Scholz) This session will teach you how to employ geospatial methods in your research. You will learn how to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to critically analyse and visualise geospatial information relevant to topics in the humanities and social sciences. No prior technical skills are required to participate in this session.
9:00 - 12:30pm Friday
Ethics and open science (Ashley Mattheis & Łukasz Szulc) During this session we will address common ethical concerns related to using digital methods for research and discuss the implications of open-science practices for digital data. Roundtable discussion (all staff members, led by Łukasz Szulc)
What's included in the course?
Each full day includes a vegan buffet lunch served 12.30-1.30pm. There are morning and afternoon refreshment breaks with tea, coffee, water, and pastries/cakes.
The course includes a social programme - these are optional but free social events for everyone attending our summer school to meet attendees from other courses in a relaxed environment.
Accommodation and travel are not included in the course price. You will need to arrange any accommodation and travel separately.
Cost
- Full price: £900
- PGR/Reduced Rate: £600
As well as PGRs, reduced fees are available to those working within the voluntary, charity and community sector. We also have two bursary options available for those entitled to reduced fees. Please view more information on our main Summer School website to find out more and how to apply.
Book Your Place
Please purchase via our online store below before 15 June (payment by card only). If you any questions, or will have trouble purchasing by this date please get in touch with methods@manchester.ac.uk.
Any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on methods@manchester.ac.uk
Credits:
Created with an image by pattaraporn - "Modern digital books for learning in the style of the digital future change the traditional way of education.,AI generated image"