idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
From the winter semester of 2025, the University of Würzburg will combine the humanities and artificial intelligence in a new Master's degree programme. This will open up new avenues of cultural research.
A new interdisciplinary degree programme will be launched at the University of Würzburg (JMU) in winter 2025. The Master of Science in Computational Humanities combines in-depth knowledge of computer science with methods and issues from the humanities and cultural studies. It is offered jointly by the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science.
“Unlike many Master's programmes in Digital Humanities, our course covers the full spectrum of media and cultural disciplines. This includes not only the application of language models for literary analysis, but also audio processing for music analysis and computer vision for visual arts and films”, says Christof Weiß, one of the two course directors and Professor of Computer Science (Computational Humanities).
“In addition, we teach not only application skills, but also an understanding of algorithms that enables the application and adaptation of them to be carried out in a more differentiated way”, adds Fotis Jannidis, his colleague, who is also responsible for the degree programme and is Chair of Computer Philology and Modern German Literary History.
Cultural Research in the Digital Age
The new degree programme focuses on computational analysis of cultural content, including texts, images, music, and videos. Students learn how to systematically utilise digital resources and carry out their own research projects using modern AI methods. They will acquire knowledge of machine learning, natural language processing, programming, and in-depth skills in humanities methodology.
“In Computational Humanities, we develop and adapt machine learning algorithms to meet the specific needs of humanities research”, says Weiß. “This allows us to gain a comprehensive and unique insight into different art forms. We collaborate closely with the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (CAIDAS) and the Centre for Philology and Digitality (ZPD) at our university, where most of the courses take place.”
Alongside quantitative text analysis in “Computational Literary Studies” the degree programme has a particular focus on computational music analysis, with applications in music research, audio processing, and artificial intelligence. Students learn to use these tools to automatically analyse large music databases in a historical context, for example, or to determine the authorship of a controversial composition. In this way, students familiarise themselves with current technologies and actively shape new approaches to digital humanities.
Prerequisites and application
The Master's in Computational Humanities can be studied as either a single-subject Master's with 120 ECTS (including a Master's thesis and colloquium), or as a dual-subject Master's. In the latter case, a further 30 ECTS are added for a Master's thesis and colloquium in one of the chosen subjects, or in combination. This opens up a wide range of possibilities for specialisation, for example by choosing a second subject such as German Studies, Musicology, Art History, or other Humanities, Social or Cultural Sciences. The language of instruction is English.
Admission to Computational Humanities requires a completed Bachelor's degree with at least 60 ECTS credits in Digital Humanities or a comparable degree programme as well as at least 20 ECTS credits from a humanities or cultural studies subject. Detailed admission requirements, module handbooks and study plans can be found on the programme's website (Link: https://go.uniwue.de/ch-master). Applications are now open – prospective students can enrol via WueStudy (Link: https://wuestudy.zv.uni-wuerzburg.de/).
Information evening on 24 June 2025
Those who have any questions about the new Master's programme, or would like to find out more about its structure, the courses on offer, or the application process, are welcome to attend the Computational Humanities information evening on 24 June 2025. The event will take place at Hubland Nord in Building 23 (Emil-Hilb-Weg 23, 97074 Würzburg), starting at 6:15 pm (Link: https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/zpd/news/single/news/infoabend-zum-master-computati...).
Prof. Dr. Fotis Jannidis, Chair of Computer Philology and Modern German Literary History, Tel.: +49 931 31-80078, fontis.jannidis@uni-wuerzburg.de
Prof. Dr. Christof Weiß, Chair of Computer Science (Computational Humanities), Tel. +49 931 31-80528 christof.weiss@uni-wuerzburg.de
Thorsten Vitt, Subject Advisor at the Chair of Computational Philology and Modern German Literary History, Tel. +49 931 31-80079 thorsten.vitt@uni-wuerzburg.de
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