UCLA To Offer Nation's First Bachelor's Degree In Digital Humanities

LOS ANGELES, CA — UCLA has established a Department of Digital Humanities and says it will become the first university in the nation to offer a bachelor's degree in the subject, the university announced Thursday.

The department will focus on how technology intersects with fields including literature, language, history and cultural studies. Courses will cover subjects such as artificial intelligence, user experience and design, social media analytics, digital mapping and 3D modeling.

The new department builds on UCLA's existing digital humanities program, which launched in 2010. More than 200 undergraduates minored in digital humanities during the most recent academic year, making it the largest minor in the UCLA College and the second-largest minor campuswide.

About 750 undergraduate students and more than 30 graduate students took digital humanities courses during the 2025-26 academic year.

"We are at a crossroads," department chair Dominic Thomas said. "There is no one subject right now that is more being discussed — in sophisticated terms or lay terms — than questions about AI."

UCLA said the department will launch with about 18 affiliated faculty members. Students will be taught both how to use emerging technologies and how to examine their ethical and societal effects.