Where do you learn how to do that?

ITMO University offers a project-oriented Master’s program in digital humanities taught both in Russian and English.

Antonina Puchkovskaiia emphasizes that this program is for everyone who would like to work on projects at the intersection of humanities and digital technologies. That’s why there’s no strict line between humanities and STEM students.

“Students that join our program are very different and we’re proud of that. Any person who wishes to implement their project can become our student. We’re focused on projects and this means that we consider the demands of our students and the industry. One of the ways to enter the program is to come up with a project and acquire the skills necessary for its implementation during the studies. We help choose courses and optional subjects individually, assign a consultant to each student, and create an environment for communication that helps create project teams,” she says.

For instance, Karina Agafonova, a second-year Master’s student, got into digital humanities after being engaged in internet communications, when she realized that as a professional linguist she wasn’t really interested in translating from English, German, and Hungarian and instead wanted to expand her horizons.

“I took a gap year after my Bachelor’s studies before enrolling into this Master’s program. I have a classic training in the humanities, but I soon realized that I didn’t want to be a translator. On one hand, I liked my field, but on the other, I wanted to slightly shift my specialization and acquire some additional competencies. That’s why I consciously chose to enroll into the program in digital humanities,” says Karina Agafonova.

Karina is currently working on several projects with cultural institutions and presents her research at conferences. One such experience was her project that grew out of the task in a course on data mining. In a team, Karina analyzed a community of sci-fi fans based on the data form Fantlab, one of the oldest Russian bibliographical websites for science fiction in its broadest sense, as well as related genres, such as magical realism, horrors, gothic prose, and others.

The resulting conclusions were quite surprising. For instance, the word war was the most often used one for describing utopias.

“My main and crucial takeaway from my Master’s studies was realizing my opportunities. For example, having mastered Python and data mining, I now understand where and how I can use these tools, where to look for data, and what kind of specialists I will need to implement a particular idea. This way, I can be a product or project manager and bring an idea to life,” says Karina Agafonova. 

Training at the program

The program features two tracks: 

1. Curatorship of Digital Projects (in Russian and English)

2. Internet Studies (in English)

The track determines not only the structure of training but also the type of the final thesis. Within the first track, students may defend DH projects – with a description of the whole pipeline starting from the concept and target audience and up to the presentation of the main functionality. Another option is to present a working product or its prototype with a specific cultural institution serving as its customer. 

Students in the second track may defend a classic research study that can also become the basis of a research publication. The program’s main fields of studies are: digital technologies for preservation and broadcast of cultural heritage, mediapoetry and digital literature, narrative design, gamification, data visualization, AI, and big data. 

In both tracks, students will be developing their projects guided by research and technological supervisors, who are industry specialists or representatives of cultural institutions. 

Classes in digital humanities

Master’s students start working with cultural data from its collection and storage to interpretation, visualization, and distribution. To this aim, they get to acquire the necessary technical skills, including coding in Python, data mining, working with databases, and web development. 

At the same time students learn to work with projects – develop a concept, expand an idea, determine the target audience, assemble a team, and control a product on all stages. 

According to Antonina Puchkovskaia, classes are held in different formats. For instance, lectures on theory are pre-recorded, so that students can listen to them at any time they find convenient. And after covering the lecture and getting through all the additional materials, students can come for an in-person class to discuss this information and ask any remaining questions to the lecturer. Such in-person classes follow the flipped classroom model, so that students can actively engage in a discussion instead of simply listening to a teacher. 

Some of the practical courses are optional. So, for instance, if you are already comfortable with coding in Python, but you’d like to get additional training in web development, you don’t have to take both of these courses and can only choose the one you need. 

Practical training 

Practical training takes center stage from the first days at the program. That’s why right from the start students get to meet the main participants of the digital humanities market – cultural institutions and various companies that can suggest a specific project or help students bring their own ideas to life. 

“Practical training is at the heart of our program, because they are ongoing during all four of its semesters. Starting from the first semester, we explain to our students that they’ll be working with a cultural institution. That’s why we organize tours where students can meet curators from museums, libraries, galleries, and archives. It’s a unique opportunity for students to get an insider’s view of the industry. During such meetings, our students look for curators and cases they’d like to work on. That means that from day one our students work on projects that can be implemented in a cultural institution and be introduced to the public,” says Antonina Puchkovskaia. 

Among the collaborators of the Digital Humanities Master’s program are the Museum of the History of Religion, the Institute of Russian Literature, the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg (which brings together almost all historic house museums), the Russian Museum, the Vladimir Mayakovsky City Public Library, and the Ascreen company. 

For instance, Karina Agafonova is already implementing a project on developing a new user experience at the Museum of the History of Religion. Using a special service, visitors will be able to not only learn about a particular exhibit, but also create their own route of the exposition depending on the emotions they feel when looking at a particular exhibit. 

“It’s often the case that visitors don’t have the necessary background when they come to a museum, which leads them to think that there are too many exhibits and their descriptions are hard to interpret. In other words, visitors don’t know what to look at first and get lost in this diversity. And our project is a service that will help accentuate the exposition. It combines different exhibits and their various interpretations, all of them correct, because each object can be perceived differently. Users can scroll through exhibits and choose those interpretations that speak to them the most, thus sculpting their own routes in the museum,” explains Karina Agafonova. 

The team of the project has already selected the exhibits and their descriptions and is currently developing user scripts and interface. It will take several more months to complete the project, and after that the service will be introduced at the museum.