US News
UCLA debuts nation's first bachelor's degree program in digital humanities
The new major merges traditional humanities with instruction in coding, data analysis, and ethical artificial intelligence.
The short version
- UCLA is establishing the first digital humanities department and undergraduate degree program in the United States this fall.
- The major combines classical fields like history and literature with technical skills including coding, statistical analysis, and 3D mapping.
- Administrators anticipate between 50 and 100 students will eventually declare the major, supported by 23 faculty members across multiple disciplines.
- The launch comes as nationwide college enrollments in traditional humanities degrees have fallen to 8% of total conferred degrees.
Key facts
- UCLA is launching the first digital humanities department and bachelor's degree program in the United States this fall.[Associated Press]
- The curriculum fuses traditional humanities subjects, such as literature and history, with technical tools like coding, 3D mapping, data visualization, and ethical artificial intelligence instruction.[Associated Press]
- The department is opening with 23 faculty members and four staff members within the UCLA College Division of Humanities.[Associated Press]
- School administrators aim to enroll 40 students in the major's first year and expect overall declaration to reach 50 to 100 students over time.[Associated Press]
- Digital humanities has operated as a minor at UCLA for over two decades, ranking as the campus's second most popular minor.[Associated Press]
- Nationally, the proportion of U.S. college graduates earning humanities degrees has dropped to 8%, down from nearly 15% almost twenty years ago.[Associated Press]
What remains uncertain
- Whether the new major will succeed in reversing or halting the broader decline in humanities student enrollment remains unknown.[Associated Press]