Mon 30 June – Thu 3 July 2025
King’s College London, UK
Applications Now Open
King’s Digital Lab is delighted to announce that applications are now open for the DH & RSE Summer School. Application deadline: 22 April 2025.
The Summer School is co-organised by King’s College London, University of Cambridge and University of Edinburgh, in collaboration with Digital Skills in Arts and Humanities (DISKAH) project.
- About the Summer School 2025
- Intended Audience
- King’s College London Venue
- Schedule
- Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
- Bursaries
- How to Apply
About the Summer School 2025
The DH & RSE Summer School 2025, hosted at King’s College London, Strand Campus, combines talks and practical activities and will explore how the intersection of digital humanities and software engineering is shaped across different UK institutions. Participants will have an opportunity to gain an invaluable insight into the roles and practices of Research Software Engineering in Digital Humanities research.
“I particularly liked the immersed environment to collaborate with team members and speak out freely to discuss with lecturers.”
Participant, Summer School 2024
Each day one of the partner institutions will take the lead in showcasing the practicalities of working in the field. Mornings will start with presentations on topics including careers, project case studies, introductions to principles and sustainability practices. Afternoon sessions will consist of hands-on workshops spanning matters such as the software development life cycle, foundational technical practices, high performance computing and responsible digital research practices. Networking opportunities are built into the day during breaks and in the evenings (optional).
What is Research Software Engineering for Digital Humanities?
Research Software Engineering (RSE) in the humanities combines technical expertise with scholarly research to create, maintain, and refine digital tools for disciplines such as history, literature, linguistics, archaeology, art history, musicology, and cultural heritage. RSE enables text and image analysis, digital archives, data visualization, AI-driven research and more, while addressing the unique complexities of humanities data.
RSE can also involve collaboration across roles and disciplines, project and product management, and increasingly the adoption of high-performance computing (HPC) to handle complex analyses and large datasets. Sustainability is key to good RSE—not just in planning, maintaining and sharing software, but also in developing environmentally responsible computing practices that reduce the impact of digital research on the world.
About the Summer School Partnership
Since 2021 a partnership of UK institutions has been involved in the creation and delivery of a Summer School aimed at postgraduate students, researchers and other professionals in Digital Humanities and allied sectors who wish to learn more about careers and best practices in Research Software Engineering.
The DH & RSE Summer School 2025 is co-organised by King’s Digital Lab (Mary Chester-Kadwell, Neil Jakeman), Cambridge Digital Humanities (Jonathan Blaney) and Edinburgh Centre for Data, Culture & Society (Lucia Michielin). It is organised in collaboration with King’s College London e-Research (James Graham) and the ‘Digital Skills in Arts and Humanities (DISKAH): Transforming Access to Digital Infrastructure and Skills’ project, funded by UKRI (Grant No. APP4595) (Karina Rodriguez Echavarria).
Read more about the Summer School partners.
We are grateful for funding support from Strategic TEchnical Platform for University Technical Professionals (STEP-UP) and the UK Society of Research Software Engineering.
The event has been hosted in past years by The Alan Turing Institute, Cambridge Digital Humanities and Edinburgh Centre for Data, Culture & Society.
Intended Audience
The Summer School is for those who are interested in applying Research Software Engineering (RSE) practices in a current or future role. This event is for you if you have been studying or working in Digital Humanities for a few years and wish to engage with RSE practices more deeply in your work, or if you would benefit from networking and support in moving into roles where RSE practices are more central.
We welcome applications from postgraduate students (with a research focus), researchers, academics, curators, technical professionals and similar roles in education, research and cultural heritage collections. You may work in the humanities, allied disciplines or related sectors, such as museums and libraries — though we primarily focus on Digital Humanities case studies and networking opportunities.
You do not need to identify as a Research Software Engineer to attend. In previous years our attendees have had a wide variety of backgrounds and experience, and this diversity has made for an enriching and collaborative teaching environment.
“The diversity of participants and lecturers was my favourite part.”
Participant, Summer School 2024
Prerequisites
It is essential that you already have a few years of experience in coding – we do not teach coding – but you do not need a background in computer science. In fact, those with a computer science background or those already working as RSEs for some time are likely to find much of the material too introductory. Ideally, you will be familiar with some computational methods within humanities projects from study or in your current role. You must bring your own laptop.
King’s College London Venue
The venue of the Summer School 2025 is King’s College London, Strand Campus, in the heart of London, UK. It is easily accessible by public transport and a wide range of accommodation and places to eat are available on campus and nearby.
How to get to the Strand Campus and facilities guide
Sessions will take place in the Macadam 3.1 Innovative Learning Space, a state-of-the-art novel learning environment with different layouts, interactive screens, whiteboards and charging ports to enable a variety of active teaching and learning activities.
Address: Macadam Building, Surrey Street, London, WC2R 2NS
Map and directions to the Macadam Building
AccessAble Guide to plan an accessible route to the Macadam Building
Schedule
Learn more about the programme
| Day 1: Mon 30 June King’s College London (King’s Digital Lab) | Day 2: Tue 1 July University of Cambridge | Day 3: Wed 2 July King’s College London (e-Research) | Day 4: Thu 3 July University of Edinburgh | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software Development Life Cycle | Digital Humanities at the Command Line | High Performance Computing for DH | Responsible Digital Research | |
| 8.30-9am | Registration | |||
| 9am | Introduction to Summer School & Logistics | Mini talk: Society of Research Software Engineering | Mini talk: Software Sustainability Institute | Mini talk: tbc |
| 9.10am | Talks: Introduction to RSE in digital humanities | Talks: Humanities RSE work at Cambridge | Talks: Case studies using HPC in digital humanities research | Talks: Humanities approaches to digital research Responsible data collection |
| Break | ||||
| 11am | Talks: Introduction to the Software Development Lifecycle Case studies of projects at King’s Digital Lab | Talks: The command line: principles and best practice | Talks: Principles of High Performance Computing for digital humanists | Talks: Green optimisation of HPC jobs Ethical approaches to digital projects |
| Lunch | ||||
| 1.30pm | Workshop: Software Development Life Cycle planning scenario – requirements elicitation | Workshop: Command line group challenge: building a complex pipeline | Workshop: Introduction to High Performance Computing with CREATE HPC | Workshop: Greening the software development life cycle |
| Break | ||||
| 3.30pm | Workshop: Software Development Life Cycle planning scenario – requirements elicitation | Workshop: Distance reading using the command line and Python | Workshop: Introduction to High Performance Computing with CREATE HPC | Workshop: Greening the software development life cycle |
| Close | ||||
| After hours | tbc | tbc | Evening reception | tbc |
NB: This schedule is subject to change. Please check back for more details.
Optional Workshop (Fri 4 July, morning)
Building your digital research skills with Programming Historian
An additional optional workshop run by Programming Historian is available on the morning of Friday 4 July, courtesy of Digital Skills in Arts and Humanities (DISKAH). This workshop does not form an official part of the Summer School but is offered free of charge to all participants who wish to stay the extra morning. Accepted applicants will be asked to indicate whether they wish to join this workshop at the point of acceptance.
Learn more about the optional workshop
Coffee Breaks & Lunches
Lunches, mid-morning and mid-afternoon refreshments will be provided for the duration of the Summer School. Upon acceptance of your application, we will collect information about any food allergies or dietary requirements.
Evening Networking & Activities
An evening reception is provided on Wed 2 July, with free drinks and nibbles, to facilitate networking and socialising with other participants. Other optional evening opportunities will be announced in due course.
DISKAH Fellows
We are joined during the Summer School by fellows from the DISKAH fellowship scheme. They will take part in some sessions of the Summer School and spend time in their own co-located training workshops. Fellows will join us for breaks and networking opportunities.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
We are committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and are keen to attract a diverse applicant pool. We strongly welcome applications from under-represented groups in software engineering and data science in the UK.
Please contact us directly on kdl-info@kcl.ac.uk if you would like to discuss any accessibility requirements for your application or application process.
Code of Conduct
We are committed to creating a friendly and respectful place for learning, teaching and contributing for all. All participants are expected to adhere to our Code of Conduct, which is set out as part of our Terms & Conditions.
Bursaries
Thanks to the support of Strategic TEchnical Platform for University Technical Professionals (STEP-UP) and the Society of Research Software Engineering we can provide a limited number of bursaries to support participants who would otherwise not be able to attend.
Allowable expenses include:
- UK travel, accommodation and subsistence
- Full bursary recipients will have the option of staying in King’s accommodation, in the Great Dover Street Apartments, at a total cost of £350 for 5 nights (Sunday 29 June-Thursday 3 July).
- Additional expenses incurred in order to attend the Summer School, e.g.:
- Paid carers (e.g. childcare or eldercare, over and above your normal arrangements)
- Reasonable costs of informal care (e.g. travel costs for a family member to provide care usually provided by the attendee)
- Reasonable costs related to disability or medical conditions (e.g. travel costs for a carer or assistance, equipment, etc.)
This list is not exhaustive and applicants are welcome to discuss any requests of which they are unsure. Please contact us directly in advance of your application on kdl-info@kcl.ac.uk.
Support is available up to a maximum amount per participant of £650. All costs must be supported with receipts in order to be reimbursed. If a partial award would still enable you to attend, please state this on the application form.
Bursaries will be allocated to accepted applicants based on the following priorities:
- Applicants who will not receive financial support from their own institutions to cover the costs for which they are applying.
- Applicants who identify as belonging to an under-represented group in software engineering or data science in the UK.
If the number of bursary applications that meet our criteria exceeds the number of bursaries available, we will award them based on how well the applications align with our target audience (see Intended Audience).
Please note that the available funds will not cover travel for attendees arriving from outside the UK. More information can be found in the Terms & Conditions.
How to Apply
Thanks to the support of Strategic Technical Platform for University Technical Professionals (STEP-UP) and Digital Skills in Arts and Humanities (DISKAH) participation will be free for those who are offered a place.
The Summer School has a limited number of places available: candidates will be assessed on the quality of their application and how well they are aligned with our target audience (see Intended Audience).
Apply now by application form
Application deadline: 22 April 2025
The application form has questions about your work/study, experience and interests and you will be asked to respond to 3 questions with a paragraph of text:
- Please tell us about your current role, course of study or research project. How do you use code and/or data in your work or study? What are the topics, challenges or research questions that you are engaged with?
- Please describe how one or more specific topics at the Summer School 2025 will help you in your work, study, research or career aspirations. What do you hope to get out of attending?
- What skills or experiences will you bring to the Summer School to share with others? Your list can include both technical and non-technical examples.
Timeline
- Mon 17 March – Applications open
- Tue 22 April – Applications close
- Tue 6 May – Attendees and bursary holders are notified
- Mon 19 May – Deadline for confirmation of attendance
- Tue 20 May – Reserve list for attendees and bursaries notified
- Mon 30 June – Thu 3 July – Summer School takes place