A new Ph.D. for a new era

Reviews key issues face by our English department as we developed and proposed our new Ph.D. in Texts and Technology, a research program that melds textual studies with new digital technologies. Research will include historical and theoretical as well as empirical approaches to "texts" conceived broadly to include words, images, multimedia, hypertext, interactivity, simulations and virtual reality. As first coordinator of this program, I have found chief concerns to be disciplinary boundaries and information technologies. Questions arose about the appropriateness of this program for an English department and about the digital intensiveness of the program. Our resolution of these concerns will be of interest to those developing doctoral program or bringing technological emphases to existing programs in humanities areas.