New undergraduate study options combine data science with humanities and arts

Above: A student checks out an interactive map at the David Rumsey Map Center. Understanding new data-driven methods for storing and accessing cultural records is among the new study options at Stanford that combine data science with the humanities and arts. 
 

Students who love working with cold, hard data as well as grappling with the big, burning questions about human nature have new ways to combine their interests at Stanford. 

In the School of Humanities and Sciences, undergraduates can now pursue Data Science for Artistic and Cultural Analysis, a new subplan for the bachelor of arts in data science, and Computational Cultural Analytics, a new sublan for the bachelor of arts in English focused on applying data science techniques to the study of literature.

“These options are for students who are interested in data, coding, and information work—who are also really passionate about humanistic pursuits or creative work,” said Mark Algee-Hewitt, associate professor of English, who was involved in developing both options. “They are brand new, so students will be part of something really exciting. Stanford is one of the only places in the country that has a rigorous, curriculum-based approach to gaining skills in both data science and the humanities and arts.” 

Combining culture with data 

The Data Science for Artistic and Cultural Analysis subplan is the second subplan for the data science bachelor of arts degree, joining Data Science and Social Systems. The Program in Data Science also offers a bachelor of science, with four subplans.

Students in the new subplan will take not only data science core courses, but also a core set of humanities and arts courses. The coursework will follow one of the subplan’s four pathways—analysis, archives, creation, and critique—which address different ways that data science can intersect with the humanities and arts. 

The analysis pathway centers on applying data science methods to the study of cultural or artistic objects, such as anthropological methods, historical sources, translation techniques, and literary texts. The archive pathway aims to understand the new data-driven methods for storing and accessing cultural records, past and present. The creation pathway is for using data to make all types of art, including creative writing, music, theater, and visual art, as well as for studying the design elements of data visualization. 

The fourth pathway, critique, is almost the inverse of the analysis pathway, according to Algee-Hewitt, as it brings humanistic methods to evaluate computational or quantitative processes. For example, students can study how data is used in the media or the politics inherent in some algorithms.

Regardless of pathway, all subplan students will complete a capstone internship experience at the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA), where they will work with faculty on research or an artistic project. 

A new kind of literary analysis

While the data science program’s new subplan covers multiple areas of the humanities and arts, the English major’s subplan in Computational Cultural Analytics is more specialized.

“This emphasis is for students who are really interested in thinking about literature and the role it plays in the world—and want to do more experimental work with it,” Algee-Hewitt said. 

The coursework in this subplan includes introductory classes in computer science and statistics as well as classes that address ethics and technology. Students will also take two classes in literary text mining, using computational modeling to identify patterns in literature that would be impossible to find with close reading alone.

The new subplan expands the offerings at the intersection of technology and the humanities in the Department of English, which has offered a digital humanities minor since 2015.

Digital connections

To develop these new academic options, Algee-Hewitt, who is also the new faculty director of CESTA, has been working with colleagues both in the Department of English and across disciplines, including Professor of Classics Giovanna Ceserani, Professor of Art and Art History Shane Denson, and Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures Yuliya Ilchuk. 

The new offerings come out of years of work that has roots in a workshop held at CESTA in 2020 called “Critical Data Practices,” which was funded by the Stanford Humanities Center. This grew into the seminar series “The Data that Divides Us,” sponsored by a Mellon Foundation grant, and a small group developing academic opportunities for undergraduates spun off from there. 

Ceserani, who led CESTA for the past six years, said that the curricular additions really address a growing need in education, scholarship, and society as a whole.

“It’s incredibly satisfying to see that all of this effort and thinking has been translated into a program that will have benefits across generations,” Cesarani said. “Understanding the complexity of data from all sides is so essential for our world today.”  

The new options might open up career avenues for graduates, Algee-Hewitt said. With AI now taking over many coding tasks, employers are looking for people who have critical thinking and creative skills that are developed in the humanities and arts, as well as a foundation in data science.

“There has been a re-evaluation of the kinds of skills that will be valuable,” Algee-Hewitt said. “It’s more important than ever to have people who are well versed in the humanities and are still fully literate in talking about data and data science. I’m hoping that these new options will fit that need.”