Program

Challenge Programs: Next Generation Humanities PhD (Implementation)

Period of Performance

9/1/2016 - 6/30/2020

Funding Totals (matching)

$350,000.00 (approved)
$350,000.00 (offered)
$350,000.00 (awarded)


Doctoral Training for the Versatile Humanist

FAIN: ZB-250690-16

Duke University (Durham, NC 27705-4677)
Edward J. Balleisen (Project Director: February 2016 to October 2022)

Unified efforts to prepare students for non-academic careers, expand intellectual horizons, extend analytical skills, and foster a cultural transformation in how the university envisages the societal impacts of humanistic experience.

Humanists and interpretive social scientists have distinctive skills that can benefit NGOs, government agencies and businesses. Research universities have the obligation to prepare their doctoral students to contribute to all realms of society. Through this proposal, Duke University intends to create greater versatility in our doctoral students by: 1) shifting university norms by engaging faculty in efforts to transform doctoral education; 2) fostering pedagogical innovation and enhancing professional development opportunities; 3) developing external internship opportunities; 4) strengthening and leveraging our alumni network to provide networking connections or career guidance; and 5) creating a navigator to support students as they consider co-curricular opportunities and weigh career options.





Associated Products

Holding Open a Space for the Millennial Humanities Doctoral Student (Article)
Title: Holding Open a Space for the Millennial Humanities Doctoral Student
Author: Maria LaMonaca Wisdom
Abstract: At this moment, the most important and necessary thing to do is to support our graduate students in becoming agents of their own academic and professional trajectories. At institutions across the country, dedicated faculty members, members of staff, and senior administrators have worked diligently to develop resources that empower graduate students. As a result, doctoral students now can tap a slew of resources on campus and beyond their institutions (especially online). These resources have made a discernible impact on the quality of training for many students. And, yet, change has proved incremental and uneven. Too many of these enhancements sit at the periphery of doctoral training, beyond the core formation that happens within PhD programs themselves.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://profession.mla.org/holding-open-a-space-for-the-millennial-humanities-doctoral-student/
Primary URL Description: Article
Access Model: open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: MLA Profession
Publisher: MLA Profession

Rethinking Graduate Education in the Humanities (Article)
Title: Rethinking Graduate Education in the Humanities
Author: Maria LaMonaca Wisdom
Author: Edward J. Balleisen
Abstract: Despite a decades-old national conversation on revising humanities Ph.D. training, the pace of change has been slow. Ph.D. program reform can and should consider the intellectual formation of students from year one through completion, including helping late-stage Ph.D. students transition to nonacademic careers. An NEH-funded reform effort at Duke University is developing best practices to support Ph.D. students: off-campus internships, interdisciplinary collaborative research experiences, and supplemental Ph.D. program advising. The Duke project suggests practical advice for university administrators, graduate faculty, and graduate students in navigating the landscape of humanities doctoral reform.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00091383.2018.1510267
Primary URL Description: Article
Access Model: open access
Format: Magazine
Periodical Title: Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Online

Hendrik Hartog: Talking Legal History Podcast Series (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Hendrik Hartog: Talking Legal History Podcast Series
Writer: The University of North Carolina Press
Director: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Producer: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Abstract: Episode 12: In this podcast, Siobhan talks with Hendrik Hartog about his book The Trouble with Minna: A Case of Slavery and Emancipation in the Antebellum North (UNC Press, 2018). The Trouble with Minna is also used as a vessel to explore some of the topics discussed in Law and Social Inquiry's May 2019 “Review Symposium: Retrospective on the Work of Hendrik Hartog.” Hartog is the Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor in the History of American Law and Liberty, Emeritus at Princeton University. This episode is the first in a series featuring legal history works from UNC Press. Support for the production of this series was provided by the Versatile Humanists at Duke program.
Date: 08/06/2019
Primary URL: https://legalhistorypodcast.podbean.com/e/episode-12-hendrik-hartog/
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Secondary URL: https://feed.podbean.com/legalhistorypodcast/feed.xml
Secondary URL Description: Feed
Access Model: open access
Format: Web

Will Hustwit: Talking Legal History Podcast Series (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Will Hustwit: Talking Legal History Podcast Series
Writer: The University of North Carolina Press
Director: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Producer: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Abstract: Episode 13: In this episode, Siobhan talks with William P. Hustwit about his book Integration Now: Alexander v. Holmes and the End of Jim Crow Education (UNC Press, 2019). Hustwit is the Associate Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at Birmingham-Southern College. Fifty years after the Supreme Court decision in Alexander v. Holmes (1969), Integration Now explores how studying Alexander enhances understandings of the history underlying school desegregation. This episode is part of a series featuring legal history works from UNC Press. Support for the production of this series was provided by the Versatile Humanists at Duke program.
Date: 10/28/2019
Primary URL: https://legalhistorypodcast.podbean.com/e/episode-13-william-hustwit/
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Secondary URL: https://feed.podbean.com/legalhistorypodcast/feed.xml
Secondary URL Description: Feed
Access Model: open access
Format: Web

Kimberly M. Welch: Talking Legal History Podcast Series (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Kimberly M. Welch: Talking Legal History Podcast Series
Writer: The University of North Carolina Press
Director: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Producer: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Abstract: Episode 14: In this episode, Siobhan talks with Kimberly M. Welch about her book Black Litigants in the Antebellum American South (University of North Carolina Press, 2018). Kimberly Welch is Assistant Professor of History and Assistant Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University. She is a scholar of race, slavery, and law in the early American South. Black Litigants has won numerous awards, including the 2018 James H. Broussard Best First Book Prize, the 2019 J. Willard Hurst Prize, the 2018 David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History, and the 2019 Vanderbilt University Chancellor’s Award for Research. This episode is part of a series featuring legal history works from UNC Press. Support for the production of this series was provided by the Versatile Humanists at Duke program.
Date: 11/14/2019
Primary URL: https://legalhistorypodcast.podbean.com/e/episode-14-kimberly-welch/
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Secondary URL: https://feed.podbean.com/legalhistorypodcast/feed.xml
Secondary URL Description: Feed
Format: Web

Jane Hong: Talking Legal History Podcast Series (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Jane Hong: Talking Legal History Podcast Series
Writer: The University of North Carolina Press
Director: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Producer: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Abstract: Episode 15. In this episode, Siobhan talks with Jane Hong about her book Opening the Gates to Asia: A Transpacific History of How America Repealed Asian Exclusion (University of North Carolina Press, 2019). Hong is an assistant professor of history at Occidental College where she specializes in 20th-century U.S. immigration and engagement with the world, with a focus on Asia. This episode is part of a series featuring legal history works from UNC Press. Support for the production of this series was provided by the Versatile Humanists at Duke program.
Date: 12/03/2019
Primary URL: https://legalhistorypodcast.podbean.com/e/episode-15-jane-hong/
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Secondary URL: https://feed.podbean.com/legalhistorypodcast/feed.xml
Secondary URL Description: Feed
Format: Web

Gregory Downs: Talking Legal History Podcast Series (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Gregory Downs: Talking Legal History Podcast Series
Writer: The University of North Carolina Press
Director: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Producer: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Abstract: Episode 16: Greg Downs. In this episode, Siobhan talks with Gregory P. Downs about his book The Second American Revolution: The Civil War-Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic (University of North Carolina Press, 2019). Downs is professor of history at the University of California, Davis where he studies the political and cultural history of the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This episode is part of a series featuring legal history works from UNC Press. Support for the production of this series was provided by the Versatile Humanists at Duke program.
Date: 01/20/2020
Primary URL: https://legalhistorypodcast.podbean.com/e/episode-16-gregory-downs/
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Secondary URL: https://feed.podbean.com/legalhistorypodcast/feed.xml
Secondary URL Description: Feed
Format: Web

Sophie White: Talking Legal History Podcast Series (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Sophie White: Talking Legal History Podcast Series
Writer: The University of North Carolina Press
Director: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Producer: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Abstract: EPISODE 17 Episode 17: Sophie White. In this episode, Siobhan talks with Sophie White about her book, Voices of the Enslaved: Love, Labor, and Longing in French Louisiana (University of North Carolina Press, 2019). White is Associate Professor of American Studies and Concurrent Associate Professor in the Departments of Africana Studies, History, and Gender Studies at the University of Notre Dame. In eighteenth-century New Orleans, the legal testimony of some 150 enslaved women and men–like the testimony of free colonists–was meticulously recorded and preserved. Questioned in criminal trials as defendants, victims, and witnesses about attacks, murders, robberies, and escapes, they answered with stories about themselves, stories that rebutted the premise on which slavery was founded. This episode is part of a series featuring legal history works from UNC Press. Support for the production of this series was provided by the Versatile Humanists at Duke program.
Date: 02/25/2020
Primary URL: https://legalhistorypodcast.podbean.com/e/episode-17-sophie-white/
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Secondary URL: https://feed.podbean.com/legalhistorypodcast/feed.xml
Secondary URL Description: Feed
Format: Web

Maddalena Marinari: Talking Legal History Podcast Series (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Maddalena Marinari: Talking Legal History Podcast Series
Writer: The University of North Carolina Press
Director: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Producer: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Abstract: Episode 18: Maddalena Marinari. In this episode, Siobhan talks with Maddalena Marinari about her book, Unwanted Italian and Jewish Mobilization against Restrictive Immigration Laws, 1882–1965 (University of North Carolina Press, 2020). Marinari is Assistant Professor in History; Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies; and Peace Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College. In Unwanted, Marinari examines how, from 1882 to 1965, Italian and Jewish reformers profoundly influenced the country’s immigration policy as they mobilized against the immigration laws that marked them as undesirable. This episode is part of a series featuring legal history works from UNC Press. Support for the production of this series was provided by the Versatile Humanists at Duke program.
Date: 03/18/2020
Primary URL: https://legalhistorypodcast.podbean.com/e/episode-18-maddalena-marinari-1584563042/
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Secondary URL: https://feed.podbean.com/legalhistorypodcast/feed.xml
Secondary URL Description: Feed
Access Model: open access
Format: Web

Robert Chase: Talking Legal History Podcast Series (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Robert Chase: Talking Legal History Podcast Series
Writer: The University of North Carolina Press
Director: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Producer: Siobhan M. M. Barco
Abstract: Episode 19: Robert Chase. In this episode, Siobhan talks with Robert Chase about his book, We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners’ Rights in Postwar America (University of North Carolina Press, 2020). Chase is Associate Professor of History at Stony Brook University. In We Are Not Slaves Chase draws from three decades of legal documents compiled by prisoners to narrate the struggle to change prison from within. Told from the vantage point of the prisoners themselves, this book weaves together untold but devastatingly important truths from the histories of labor, civil rights, and politics in the United States as it narrates the transition from prison plantations of the past to the mass incarceration of today. This episode is part of a series featuring legal history works from UNC Press. Support for the production of this series was provided by the Versatile Humanists at Duke program.
Date: 06/03/2020
Primary URL: https://legalhistorypodcast.podbean.com/e/episode-19-robert-chase/
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Secondary URL: https://feed.podbean.com/legalhistorypodcast/feed.xml
Secondary URL Description: Feed
Access Model: open access
Format: Web

Behind the Scenes: Curating ‘Durham During the Great War’ (Blog Post)
Title: Behind the Scenes: Curating ‘Durham During the Great War’
Author: Meggan Cashwell
Abstract: On August 17th, the Museum of Durham History will premier “Durham During the Great War,” an exhibit that celebrates the contributions of Durham’s citizens at home and abroad during World War I. Meggan Cashwell, History PhD candidate, Duke University, is the museum’s exhibit intern this summer, which is funded by the Versatile Humanists at Duke Internship Program.
Date: 08/07/2018
Primary URL: https://www.museumofdurhamhistory.org/blog/behind-the-scenes-curating-durham-during-the-great-war-3/
Primary URL Description: Blog post
Blog Title: Latest News from the Museum of Durham History
Website: Museum of Durham History

Rebranding the Ph.D. (Article)
Title: Rebranding the Ph.D.
Author: Vimal Patel
Abstract: The shift in how humanities doctoral programs are thinking about career preparation is happening at Duke and other universities. Ph.D. programs have an urgent directive from current and prospective students, the public, and the professors who run them: It’s time to change. Doctorates take too long, critics have long argued. They’re too expensive, saddling students with ever-larger debt loads. And they’re designed to prepare students for an idealized academic job market that never really existed, except for a brief postwar period, rather than the career trajectories they’ll actually face. Slowly, and unevenly, programs are taking note. Humanities doctoral programs, especially, are experimenting with widening their focus, often encouraged by grant money from groups such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and disciplinary bodies such as the American Historical Association.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://www.chronicle.com/article/rebranding-the-ph-d/
Primary URL Description: Article
Access Model: subscription
Format: Newspaper
Periodical Title: Chronicle of Higher Education
Publisher: Chronicle of Higher Education

Interns Celebrated at 9th Annual RTI Internship Showcase (Article)
Title: Interns Celebrated at 9th Annual RTI Internship Showcase
Author: RTI International
Abstract: At the 9th Annual RTI Internship Showcase, summer interns from research units and areas across the institute presented their work to RTI staff, area community members and other event attendees. The RTI Internship Program's partners helped to make such diversity possible. Interns came from Versatile Humanists at Duke, which provided a humanities perspective to the Innovation-Led Economic Growth (ILEG) team; the V Foundation's Cancer Therapeutics Training Scholars Program; the Ron Brown Scholars Program and the North Carolina Governor's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Program, among other partners for the RTI program.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: https://www.rti.org/announcements/interns-celebrated-9th-annual-rti-internship-showcase
Primary URL Description: Article
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Periodical Title: RTI International
Publisher: RTI International

Duke Graduate Academy (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Duke Graduate Academy
Author: Duke University
Abstract: The Duke Graduate Academy offers online short courses that introduce Duke University graduate and professional students and postdoctoral fellows to skills, tools and knowledge that augment their regular coursework and research. These short courses help emerging scholars prepare for high-level research, innovative teaching, leadership and/or public engagement. Courses in the Duke Graduate Academy cover topics not typically included in a graduate curriculum, or provide an intensive introduction for graduate students and postdocs who might not have the time or inclination to pursue a full course in a subject. Instructors are Duke faculty as well as highly trained Duke staff and Ph.D. students.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://sites.duke.edu/interdisciplinary/education/duke-graduate-academy/
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Audience: Graduate

Archival and Digital Expeditions (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Archival and Digital Expeditions
Author: Duke University
Abstract: Archival and Digital Expeditions introduces Duke graduate students to teaching with digital and physical primary sources. Each student partners with a Duke faculty sponsor to design an undergraduate course module that incorporates primary source material tailored to a specific class taught by that faculty member. Students have the option of drawing on the physical special collections of the Rubenstein Library or primary source databases and digital collections available at Duke or elsewhere. This program is based on the successful Data Expeditions program. Graduate students will be expected to spend 70-75 hours during a semester consulting with their faculty sponsor, library staff and other experts and researching, developing and testing the module. The students will work with their faculty sponsor to establish the expectations and parameters for the module prior to applying to the program. A module can take a variety of shapes and be adjusted to fit different courses, disciplines, and goals of the faculty sponsor. Each module should be designed to allow for roughly 1-2 weeks of time within an existing course or 10-20 student hours. These hours can be a combination of in-class and out-of-class activities. Modules drawing on physical special collections must include student time with the original material from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/instruction/archival-expeditions
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Audience: Graduate

Story+ Summer Research Program (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Story+ Summer Research Program
Author: Duke University
Abstract: Story+ is a 6-week paid summer research experience for Duke students—undergraduates and graduates—interested in exploring interdisciplinary arts, interpretive social sciences, and humanities research topics and methodologies. The program combines hands-on research with storytelling to create dynamic outcomes for diverse public audiences. In Story+, students are organized into small project teams and have the opportunity to participate in a flexible mini “curriculum” on research methods and storytelling strategies. Team projects may be led by Duke faculty, librarians/archivists or research staff or by non-profit organizations, and will be supervised on a day-to-day basis by graduate student mentors. Graduate student project managers, whose commitment is for a similar time frame with more limited hours, will receive a stipend in line with graduate student summer funding requirements and expectations.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: https://fhi.duke.edu/programs/story
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Audience: Graduate

Provost Internships (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Provost Internships
Author: Duke University
Abstract: The Duke University Provost’s Office, in collaboration with the Office of Durham and Community Affairs, supports professional development opportunities for current Duke Ph.D. students who do not have full summer funding. A number of experiential internships with external organizations are available by application, along with other internship and research assistant opportunities with Duke units across campus.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://sites.duke.edu/interdisciplinary/funding-opportunities/provost-internships/
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Audience: Graduate

Graduate Student Training Enhancement Grants (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Graduate Student Training Enhancement Grants
Author: Duke University
Abstract: The goal of this annual grant competition is to expand opportunities for Ph.D. students to augment their core research and training by acquiring additional skills, knowledge or experiences through an off-campus summer internship. We believe such experiences will lead to better preparation/training, whether for academic positions or other career trajectories. We will consider proposals from current Ph.D. students without full summer funding for internships with a non-Duke community organization, government agency, NGO or cultural institution, related to the student’s area of study. Successful applications will demonstrate how the activities associated with the proposed research experience align with the student’s field of study and research interests.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: https://sites.duke.edu/interdisciplinary/funding-opportunities/graduate-student-training-enhancement-grants-gsteg/
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Audience: Graduate

Ph.D. Transitions Group Coaching Program (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Ph.D. Transitions Group Coaching Program
Author: Duke University
Abstract: This coaching program, established in 2019, helps Duke Ph.D. students from all disciplines navigate the many changes and learning curves embedded in a five-to-seven-year doctoral program. At each stage of a doctoral program (regardless of discipline), students confront new challenges and develop different competencies and skills. The Ph.D. Transitions program helps students make sense of all the changes within a safe, confidential space facilitated by a professional coach, within the company of a small group of supportive peers. Students sign up to participate for one semester in a small interdisciplinary group (usually four people) who are approximately at the same stage of their doctoral training: “Early” coursework; “Middle” exams/prospectus; “Advanced” dissertation/job search. Each group is facilitated by a professional coach, who structures the conversation based on International Coaching Federation best practices.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://sites.duke.edu/interdisciplinary/ph-d-transitions-group-coaching-program/
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Audience: Graduate

Peer Mentoring Program for First-Year Ph.D. Students (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Peer Mentoring Program for First-Year Ph.D. Students
Author: Duke University
Abstract: First-year Duke Ph.D. students are invited to take part in small peer mentoring groups during their second semester on campus. Facilitated by trained peer mentoring fellows, these groups are designed to help new doctoral students flourish. No two groups will be alike. The topics, discussions and activities will be shaped by the interests and skills of the peer mentoring fellow and the participants. However, every group will provide: A safe, nonjudgmental and confidential space for participants to discuss issues related to their Ph.D. training; Multiple, fresh perspectives on issues and questions that participants bring to the groups; Support and strategies for enhancing participants’ resilience and well-being in graduate school; Opportunities for participants to realize that they are not alone in the challenges they face as Ph.D. students; Ways for participants to widen their academic, professional and social networks across Duke and to mentor other Ph.D. students.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://sites.duke.edu/interdisciplinary/phd-student-peer-mentoring/
Primary URL Description: Webpage
Audience: Graduate