In September 2016, Russia's first Master's programme in Digital Humanities will begin at TSU. It will prepare specialists in digital humanities who will operate at the intersection of technology and the humanities. Graduates will be able to engage in the design of robots and computer games, Internet marketing, online education, and many other areas.
Digital Humanities is a very popular area in innovation of humanities education in the West. Digital humanities centers exist in the world's leading universities: Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, and many others. TSU’s Master’s in this field will be the first in Russia. The Master’s programme is based in the Department of Humanitarian Problems of Informatics, where such research has been conducted for more than 10 years.
In addition to the basic education, the applicants of humanitarian sciences may obtain skills in programming, virtual design, three-dimensional visualization, and digitization. TSU’s Master’s programme is also designed for graduates of technical specialties: they are encouraged to get knowledge and skills in arts and culture, advertising, communication, and management. That is why the Master’s has two directions: Digital Technology in Socio-Humanitarian Practices (Digital Humanities) for applicants with a basic technical education, and Humanities Informatics for those with a humanities background.
Master’s students of both programmes will see how people interact with technology, what attracts and repels them. Programmes are practice-oriented, so each student will realize their own project or will be part of the project team. They will be engaged in creating computer games, graphic design, web composition and analytics, the design of mobile applications and augmented reality, working with cultural heritage and new media (digital libraries, archives, cultural heritage and museum collections of data, digital reconstruction), and other areas. All these skills will be useful to them in employment.
With time the Masters’ graduates will be able to find themselves not only in education, science, consulting, advertising, new media, and the IT sphere, but also they will become experts of a new generation: the designers of home robots, the organizers of the project-based learning, the coordinators of an educational online platform, experts on cyber security, and virtual lawyers.
Ten budget places are planned for each direction. For more information about the Master's programme, see http://huminf.tsu.ru