20.336 attracting students?

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 20, No. 336.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
  www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/cch/research/publications/humanist.html
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

         Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2006 08:59:27 +0000
         From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>
         Subject: attracting students

Dear colleagues,

I'd be very pleased if we could have a discussion here on the subject
of attracting students, esp at the MA-level, to programmes in the
digital humanities or humanities computing. In my case, wanting this
discussion is motivated by a programme that could easily take more
students, and an administration that would like to see fatter
programmes. In the case of those who are thinking about creating such
programmes -- this should be *everyone* in any sort of position to do
so -- it would be a question of design rather than redesign.

What do students apt for an MA want from a (post)graduate programme
in the digital humanities?

What sort of language would communicate to them that a programme
offers what they want, or will want once they think about it?

Is promising or suggesting that an MA in the digital humanities will
make them more employable a good idea? (Is there any evidence that in
fact such an MA has or would have such a result?)

How idealistic are such candidates likely to be? Are they likely to
be inflamed with the love of learning or possessed by overmastering
curiosity? Or are they likely to be shrewd, calculating,
pension-securing-at-age-18 sorts? If somewhere in between, then where
along the spectrum from vision to bank account?

Should the appeal be more to the theoretical or more to practical
work -- or to a combination of both, or to theory-in-practice?

What sorts of techno-methodological approaches are the most
attractive these days?

PLEASE do say what you think, even if it's only what you think as an
individual. The worst that can do is to push discussion along, I
would hope, and that's no mistake.

Yours,
WM

Dr Willard McCarty | Reader in Humanities Computing | Centre for
Computing in the Humanities | King's College London | Kay House, 7
Arundel Street | London WC2R 3DX | U.K. | +44 (0)20 7848-2784 fax:
-2980 || willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/wlm/
Received on Mon Dec 04 2006 - 04:57:38 EST