Research at the Intersection of Humanities and Technology
Since 2001, the UCF Texts & Technology Ph.D. program has represented a pioneering approach to interdisciplinary doctoral study, integrating humanities scholarship with cutting-edge digital methods and practices. Students pursue specialized research across six dynamic areas: Digital Humanities, Digital Media, Editing/Publishing/Interdisciplinary Curating, Public History, Rhetoric and Composition, and Scientific and Technical Communication.
Faculty and students engage in innovative research across humanities disciplines like English, History, Writing and Rhetoric, and Philosophy, combined with technologies like digital archiving and editing, visualization, web design, and game design. Student dissertations explore diverse topics ranging from neuronarratives that centralize brain or consciousness in storytelling, to Digital Humanities applications in community college libraries, to the pedagogical use of Instagram in first-year composition courses.
Work in the program uses a variety of methods, with students and faculty employing approaches from critical code studies and digital archives to augmented reality language learning technologies. T&T students and faculty also work on projects such as ELLE: The EndLess LEarner language learning games project, the Veterans Legacy Program to create biographies of veterans buried in national cemeteries, and People, Religion, Information Networks, and Travel (PRINT), which traces 17th and 18th century communication networks among European religious minorities. This research ecosystem, supported by the resources of a major research university while maintaining the intimacy of a smaller program, positions graduates to lead in academic, industry, and cultural heritage settings where technological innovation meets humanistic inquiry.
The program’s commitment to inventing the future of the humanities is displayed by faculty publications and student projects that consistently push boundaries between traditional scholarly methods and emerging digital possibilities.
Alumni of the Texts and Technology program have gone on to such positions as: Assistant Professor of English, Assistant Professor of Digital Media, Director of Course Design and Production, Dean of Distance Learning, and Managing Editor.
The depth and complexity of my thinking has improved … I am a stronger writer and a better communicator, and I have forged some relationships that I expect to maintain throughout the remainder of my life.”