Thematic convenings at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee designed to expand career options for doctoral students particularly through the lens of curricular development, faculty training to learn how to mentor beyond the academy, and the creation of alumni advisors.

This project will plan for a major overhaul of career preparation for humanities doctoral students at UW-Milwaukee. We recognize that current career training is too narrowly focused on academic employment, as many doctoral graduates eventually pursue other careers. The project brings together a planning committee of more than 20 people, and includes faculty from the humanities and humanistic social sciences at UWM, upper administration including the provost and the dean of the Graduate School, graduate students from humanities fields, administrative staff, faculty from the UWM School of Business, alumni working in non-academic careers, and representatives from business and non-profit sectors. We intend to divide the planning into three areas, each overseen by a separate subcommittee: Curriculum Development, Faculty Education, and Alumni Support.

Thematic convenings that will focus on creating humanities cohorts, designing coursework in line with employment outcomes, and providing post-ABD training and target advising.

The Center for the Humanities plans to fully reconceptualize doctoral training in the humanities at Washington University. Efforts will focus on four core questions: 1) How can we stimulate collaboration among departments to grow inclusive humanities cohorts, from recruitment to completion? 2) What kinds of new curricula would better prepare humanities graduate students for the widest range of career outcomes? 3) What opportunities might be provided in the last year of graduate training to equip students for jobs outside of the academy, particularly in the public sphere? 4) What kinds of new resources might we offer to support the multiple career trajectories of humanities PhDs? A Central Planning Committee of twelve will coordinate the investigations of four Working Groups, each focused a core questions to develop an action plan at the close of the grant period.

Planning at the University of Kansas (KU) around five topics: 1) potential reforms to the doctoral curriculum; 2) the place of engaged or applied scholarship in PhD training; 3) methods for enlisting the assistance of alumni in training for alternative careers; 4) possible partnerships with nonacademic employers, and 5) the need to modify recruitment and admissions practices.

The University of Kansas humanities planning group will make recommendations that will transform humanities doctoral education. The committee's work will create departmental cultures in the humanities that recognize and value the range of careers open to humanities doctoral recipients. Secondly, it will create greater parity between the training that doctoral students receive and the range of career opportunities they seek. The end result will be a set of recommendations that will deepen the impact PhD graduates can have in their careers.

Planning by the FIU History Department around four topics: 1) the reorientation of curriculum toward learning core competencies; 2) the advisability of mandating internship experience or allowing a non-traditional dissertation; 3) best practices relating to alternative skill development; and 4) student mentorship needs.

The History Department at Florida International University (FIU), one of the nation’s largest minority serving institutions, proposes a yearlong planning program aimed at assisting history PhD students in navigating the “employment roundabout” of the nonacademic job market. Building on our previous success in placing students beyond the academy, our program has three aims: first, to gather information so that faculty and students are well informed of nonacademic opportunities and learn the appropriate skills and training needed to compete for those opportunities; second, to build a coalition of university administrators, faculty, and students, as well as community, government, private sector, and NGO partners who will serve as advisors, consultants, and mentors; and third, to produce a strategic plan for revamping the department’s culture and PhD program with an eye towards building links between academic training and nonacademic professional opportunities.

Planning at Lehigh around five topics: 1) integrating multiple career outcomes into the curriculum; 2) collaborations with entities on and off campus; 3) offering non-teaching-focused financial support systems for students; 4) alumni-oriented mentoring programs; and 5) alternative formats and requirements for the dissertation. 

The humanities graduate programs at Lehigh University (Lehigh) seek to foster doctoral recipients’ potential to contribute to public pedagogies within and beyond the university. With the support of a NEH Next Generation Ph.D. Planning Grant, we will strengthen interdisciplinary collaborations to enhance public-facing curricular and professional opportunities and create a network of internal and external partners to serve our students’ varied ambitions. Our core and consulting committees will explore three areas: reciprocal partnerships within and beyond the university to shape curricular and co-curricular activities; a mentorship network comprised of alumni and community partners, including the development of a joint advisory council for the History and English Ph.D. programs; and new models for the doctoral dissertation.

Planning by the University of California. Irvine (UCI) around four topics: 1) how to engage faculty and graduate students in rethinking PhD training and employment horizons; 2) ways to integrate multiple career path outcomes into graduate curriculum and training; 3) methods for creating community partnerships and mentoring opportunities; and 4) systems for documenting and disseminating information about post-doctoral career paths.

The University of California, Irvine’s School of Humanities has the structures to enable us to take on a leadership role in developing new models of humanities graduate education. Building on current and historic strengths in the area of PhD reform, we will use an NEH Planning Grant to explore ways to restructure graduate professionalization seminars for larger departments and to design School-wide graduate professionalization seminars for small programs that can leverage a critical mass of students so that these courses provide preparation for multiple career paths.

Planning at the University of Kentucky (UK) around six topics: 1) integrating multiple career outcomes from the very beginning of students’ experience in graduate school; 2) revisions to curriculum and degree requirements in order to better prepare students for a diverse array of future occupations; 3) maximizing faculty buy-in for a transformed PhD and methods for supporting students beyond teaching-focused funding; 4) initiating partnerships with non-academic institutions, and 5) developing an evaluation plan for future activities and implementation.

The goal of this program is to enable graduate students in the humanities to explore the possibility of non-academic and alt-academic jobs. A program of this sort at once fulfills our moral obligation to help graduate students advance in their lives and careers and makes UK’s College of Arts and Sciences a more attractive place for prospective students to pursue a graduate degree. Program development and planning will be overseen by a program director and a diverse committee that includes faculty, administrators, alumni, local businesspeople, and current graduate students. Over the course of the 2016-2017 academic year the committee will systematically consider six topics and develop program initiatives and longer-term strategies to transform the humanities PhD.

A planning process at Wayne State University that builds faculty buy-in for rethinking graduate education by creating a cohort of “Next Generation Faculty Fellows.” 

The Wayne State NEH Planning Grant will build faculty support for rethinking the future of graduate education in the Humanities and train faculty to become mentors for the Next Generation of Humanities PhDs. A series of workshops on six central topics will bring members of Wayne State faculty into public dialogue and enhance knowledge of new scholarship and best practices. Focus groups will provide data needed to inform the planning committee of faculty and other stakeholder group opinions throughout the planning cycle.

Planning at Fordham University around six topics to prepare the university to institute wide-ranging changes in its humanities doctoral programs. These have a Jesuit focus and include new curriculum, advising and mentorship structures, and a focus on community engagement.

Fordham University seeks a Next Generation Humanities PhD Planning Grant to develop a Humanities PhD model that aims to make doctoral education in this area forward-looking for future scholars and provides “living” links between doctoral education, community engagement, and multiple careers. We will focus on six planning themes identified through extensive discussions among faculty and students: Revitalize Learning Outcomes; Inhabit the New Learning Ecosystem; Mentor the Whole Person: Career-wise Counsel, Promising Partnerships; Incorporate Service and Community Engagement; Ensure Access and Inclusion; and Cultivate and Curate a “Living Humanities” PhD model.

Planning at the University of Rhode Island (URI) around four topics: 1) potential approaches to stimulate collaboration between programs, departments, and schools; 2) methods for initiating partnerships with non-academic institutions; 3) exploration of altered formats or requirements for the PhD dissertation; and 4) identification of humanities PhD alumni in various fields to advise or mentor graduate students.  

The University of Rhode Island aims to develop cross-disciplinary and experiential learning for humanities doctoral students in five key areas. As the state's flagship research university and a land and sea grant institution, URI has strong historical commitments to the coastal environment and recently extended to the health fields. The committee aims to secure partnerships, internships, new collaborations, and innovative curricular changes that will prepare doctoral students to expand their career aspirations and to bring the fruits of humanities learning to all aspects of civic life.

Thematic working groups at Loyola University of Chicago (LUC) that are focused on revising admissions guidelines, curricular and professional development, career guidance and mentoring, and humanities assistantships in the field.

This project will engage in planning activities to develop programming to enhance the ability of humanities PhD students to be prepared for and envision multiple career pathways. The goals are to 1) create opportunities for students to see themselves possessing multiple career possibilities; 2) deepen and broaden the nature of advising and mentoring; 3) develop a robust career guidance program; 4) sharpen students’ communication skills; 5) gain experience outside of academe while in school; 6) shape recruitment messaging; and 7) explore curricular possibilities. These goals will be accomplished through pilot workshops for humanities faculty and graduate students, revision of graduate student recruitment messaging, development of “Humanities Communicators” programming, alumni-student mentoring, and curricular and advising revisions. 

Planning at UC Berkeley around seven topics: 1) analysis of peer institutions and organizational infrastructure; 2) considerations of academic innovation; 3) the challenge of changing graduate student expectations; 4) student career development opportunities; 5) exploration of partnerships and internships; 6) professional learning communities for graduate students; and 7) program evaluation.

Diminishing tenure-track opportunities and the changing nature of work and careers call for academic innovations and new support structures for humanities PhDs. The University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley) proposes a planning effort for the study, assessment, and recommendation of structural changes to the formal and informal elements of doctoral education. Our planning framework is built upon seven areas of inquiry investigated by a critical combination of senior campus officials, strategic partners, and current PhD students. Under the guidance of deans and chairs, the planning work will result in the substantive change of the humanities PhD from a specific form of research apprenticeship to a means of developing well-placed leaders able to meaningfully apply the critical tools of humanistic inquiry to a variety of fields.

The development of a mission-driven model for doctoral education.

“Reimagining the 21st-Century Land Grant Ph.D.” envisions placing Washington State University’s land grant mission of public service at the heart of its humanities doctoral programs. Concentrating in particular on underserved communities, the proposal will catalyze discussions and regional site visits focusing on partnering with rural communities state-wide, expanding digital outreach and skills-building, and revising graduate program requirements to support more culturally-sensitive models of public engagement. These discussions will include not only humanities faculty, graduate students, and alumni but also key administrators and faculty from WSU’s Native American program office, its state-wide Extension Service, and its new School of Medicine, all of which have extensive experience in community-based research and learning. Together we will begin planning a potentially distinctive national model for a Ph.D. that is not only discipline-specific but also mission-driven.

The development of a university-wide initiative to systematically reform doctoral training for humanities Ph.Ds.

A systematic planning effort will lay the groundwork for a package of initiatives that will enhance support for humanities doctoral students as they explore and pursue a wide range of meaningful careers. The project directors will convene a Planning Committee comprising faculty with a variety of appointments; current students; program alumni; administrators and staff in relevant positions; and others representing professional destinations for doctoral graduates. Four Working Groups will be formed, addressing these key themes: • Curricular reform • Systematic integration of professional development and career preparation • Creation of a PhD alumni mentoring network • Development of resources to enable non-monographic dissertation projects. Each Working Group will produce a report fully describing a discrete product, service, or resource (e.g., proposed curricular innovations, a toolkit for faculty advising on nontraditional dissertation projects) to be implemented in AY 2019-20.