For DHOxSS 2025 we received 278 bursary applications for 33 places – so it was tough to review all the applications. Ultimately, we’d like to be able to support more people to attend the Summer School with bursaries – so if you’re a potential supporter, please email us on dhoxss@humanities.ox.ac.uk. Until then, here’s some tips we created as we reviewed those applications from last year.

Tell us what we want to hear

As reviewers we are looking for applications that meet our criteria:

1. Demonstrate you will use and benefit from digital humanities in your study, research or work by attending DHOxSS;
2. Demonstrate you will share your learning from DHOxSS with appropriate networks to your career stage or employment;
3. Demonstrate you are applying for a strand at DHOxSS that is appropriate to your study, research or work needs.

So whatever you do, make sure you tell us how you meet these. Tips 4-6 below go into more detail about what we’re looking for.

Tell us in your own words
 

At DHOxSS we know there is value in AI for the Humanities. Unfortunately, that value isn’t in letting AI write your application. Why? AI applications stand out to reviewers because they all sound the same and they regurgitate the text from the DHOxSS website back at us. For your application to stand out, tell us about your work, yourself and your motivations in your own words.

AI may save you time in writing an application, but if it writes one that is uncompetitive, that is a waste of your time anyway.

Get the basics right
 

It sounds obvious but get your absolute basics right. Here’s a checklist:

• Have you checked spelling?
• Are your answers within the word count?
• Are you able to submit before the deadline?
• Is your contact email address spelled correctly?

Tell us about you and your work – and be specific
 

In this question ‘What is your intended use of digital techniques in your area of research? And what benefits do you expect from attending DHOxSS 2026?’ we want you to tell us a bit about your research.

Be specific.

Tell us about what you are doing – that may be a degree, it may be postgraduate or other research, or you may be working in a gallery, library, museum, archive or heritage institution. You may work in higher education in a support or IT role – or something else. All are fine, just tell us about them.

Tell us more about your work – if you are working on a specific work or research project, or you have a problem you think digital humanities can solve, tell us about it! You don’t need to go into excessive detail, but you can tell us the subject or methodology you are taking or planning to take.

You can tell us where you are – applications are anonymised before review, but you can tell us about your institution if that is useful. If the reviewers see an institution they have a conflict of interest with (for example, they also work there), your application will be assigned to a different reviewer.

Example: ‘I’m a UK 2nd-year PhD student working on Viking coins and currently using a database to collate and analyse my dataset. However, I’d like to learn about other approaches to data and feel the Humanities Data strand would help me explore this.*

Bonus tip: if you are applying for the Applied Data Analysis strand only, please tell us about your current experience in Python.

Tell us about your plans to share – and be realistic
 

As reviewers we’ve seen all sorts of ideas in response to the question ‘How will you share what you have learned at the summer school within your institution or the wider Digital Humanities community?’, but the ones that stand out aren’t the ones that promise the most, but the most realistic.

DHOxSS is a Summer School and not a research project or conference, so we don’t expect you to publish a peer-reviewed article or a monograph.

Tell us about your networks – this could be your year group or cohort if you are doing a degree, a student club, or a postgraduate seminar series. As a researcher it could be your research group, department or a seminar series. If you are in a professional role, it could be your department, your organisation or a community of practice.

It’s fine to reference something that already exists as a mechanism to share your learning, or tell us if you are planning to start a new initiative. But be realistic about what you can achieve.

Social media has changed a lot over the last couple of years so reflect on where you already use social media and where there are DH communities in your subject or country.

As well as thinking about the platform to share your learning (e.g. seminar, social media post), you might also want to consider the format. For example, will you want to share practical skills, start a discussion, or share your reflections?

Example: ‘Digital Humanities is a fairly new subject at my institution so I’d like to use the History Postgraduate discussion group to host a session on What can DH do for history?’* or ‘I manage a team of library professionals, and not all are digitally confident. I’d like to share my learning journey with them in a team meeting.’*

Apply for the right strand – and tell us why it’s right for you
 

We’re asking you to submit only one bursary application for the strand you believe will best help you with your digital humanities aims. So in your application, tell us why you have chosen that strand and link it to what you tell us about your research, study or work.

Be specific about this. For example, something like ‘I’m working with medieval texts and want to use TEI to analyse and publish a digital edition’ or ‘I’m a beginner to digital humanities so want to learn about the breadth of approaches to digital humanities data’.*

Vague sentences that repeat the words of the DHOxSS website are far less likely to be competitive. Examples of this include ‘I will benefit from learning about TEI/geospatial analysis/databases’ or ‘I will build my network’. To make these statements better, tell us why you will benefit in your work, or how you will use a network of DH colleagues. For example ‘I will use the TEI/geospatial analysis/database skills in my dissertation on medieval texts’ or ‘I want to find other people working in medieval history or in textual approaches’.*

Good luck
 

We look forward to reading your applications.

* Obviously don’t use these exact words, the reviewers will spot you’ve taken them from this blog post!

2025 bursary holder Richa Mishra arrives in Oxford