Doctor of Philosophy in Digital Arts and Humanities (Okanagan)

Using digital technologies to explore questions central to the arts and humanities, applying arts and humanities frameworks to digital tools and technologies Digital Humanities, broadly speaking, refers to the nexus of fields within which scholars use computing technologies to investigate the kinds of questions that are traditional to the humanitiesor ask traditional humanities-oriented questions about computing technologies (Fitzpatrick).

Similarly, Digital Arts is a highly integrated practice combining strong theoretical frameworks with specific acts of making in graphic design, digital photography, digital video and audio editing, web design, 2D and 3D animation, digital writing, and mobile application development. Combining the two fields in one degree facilitates dialogue between creative and humanistic studies a conversation that is central to the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies.

Research undertaken in this graduate program brings together the Humanities, aspects of the Social Sciences, and the Creative Arts. It employs computing technologies and makerspace methods to address such topics as social justice, access, sustainability, heritage, ethics, labour, ecology, creativity, curation, collaboration, interaction, making, pedagogy, and reading, while posing vital questions about computing technologies themselves.

PhD applicants are expected to hold the academic equivalent of a two-year master's degree from UBC in a related field and to demonstrate superior academic standing. Applicant background training must be sufficient for advanced work in their chosen field.

Applicants from a university outside Canada at which English is not the primary language of instruction must present evidence of competency to pursue studies in the English language prior to being extended an offer of admission. Acceptable English language proficiency tests for applicants to graduate studies are

TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) minimum score of 550 (paper version), 90 overall with a minimum score of 22 in Reading & Listening and a minimum score of 21 in Writing & Speaking (Internet version),
IELTS 7.0 overall score.