Humanities

Join Us on October 11 for a Special Event on “The New Education”

Sarah Dwyer

Cathy Davidson

The Office of the Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies is hosting a discussion, reception, and book signing with educational innovator Cathy N. Davidson, author of The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux.

The event will take place on Wednesday, October 11, at Duke University’s Penn Pavilion from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Cosponsors include the Office of the Provost, Bass Connections, the Center for Instructional Technology, the Social Science Research Institute, Duke University Libraries, the Office of the Dean of Humanities, the Forum for Scholars and Publics, and the Franklin Humanities Institute.

Davidson is currently Distinguished Professor at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and previously served as Duke’s first Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies. In her new book, she argues that the American university is stuck in the past—and shows how we can revolutionize it to prepare students for our age of constant change.

Our current system of higher education dates to the period from 1865 to 1925, when the nation’s new universities created grades and departments, majors and minors, graduate and professional schools in an attempt to prepare young people for a world transformed by the telegraph and the Model T. This approach to education worked for most of the 20th century, says Davidson, but is unsuited to the era of the “gig economy.” From the Ivy League to community colleges, Davidson introduces us to innovators who are remaking college for our own time, by emphasizing student-centered learning that values creativity, dexterity, innovation, and social change.

In this talk she shows how we can revolutionize our universities to help students be leaders of change, not simply subject to it. Davidson will be joined in conversation by Edward Balleisen, Professor of History and Public Policy and Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke.

The Gothic Bookshop will provide books for sale at the event at a special rate of $24.

RSVP to Sarah Dwyer.

New Position Created to Guide Humanities Graduate Students through Career Paths

Sarah Dwyer

wisdom-1140x760Maria LaMonaca Wisdom will support doctoral students in becoming versatile humanists

The Graduate School has appointed Maria LaMonaca Wisdom as Director of Graduate Student Advising and Engagement for the Humanities, beginning November 1. This new role is part of a university-wide program to expand career opportunities for humanities doctoral students.

In August 2016, Duke received a Next Generation Ph.D. Implementation Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Duke’s new program will support skills training relevant for both academic and non-academic career paths, a wide array of new internship opportunities, and curricular innovations that incorporate collaborative research. It will facilitate partnerships across campus, linking doctoral students to programs offered by The Graduate School, the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke Libraries, the Social Science Research Institute, the Career Center and Bass Connections.

Since 2003, roughly half of Duke’s Ph.D. recipients in the humanities and interpretive social sciences have found tenure-track positions teaching at colleges and universities. A growing number of graduate students have expressed interest in expanding their training to incorporate such arenas as social entrepreneurship or policy analysis.

Wisdom will help humanities graduate students to integrate curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular activities into their individual academic plans, as well as to explore diverse career paths and develop plans for achieving their career goals. She will also provide assistance to faculty, departmental leaders, and alumni to support students in this endeavor.

“I have a strong desire to help students navigate the professional challenges and opportunities currently facing humanities Ph.D.s,” Wisdom said. “That’s why I am excited about this new program and position. It’s an opportunity to not only help students at Duke, but also contribute to a national conversation about the future of humanities graduate education.”

Wisdom received her B.A. from the College of William and Mary, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Victorian literature from Indiana University. After teaching at Valparaiso University as a Lilly postdoctoral fellow in the humanities, she worked as an assistant/associate professor of English at Columbia College in South Carolina. While at Columbia College, she was co-PI and co-director for a Lilly-funded faculty mentoring program, and her advising and mentoring work with students included a term as director of Columbia’s Washington Semester internship program.

In 2012, Wisdom became executive director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she oversaw scholarship and leadership development programs for humanities faculty. She also co-created and implemented programs to address the unique needs of both humanities and STEM faculty at specific stages in their careers.

Wisdom is the author of Masked Atheism: Catholicism and the Secular Victorian Home (Ohio State University Press, 2008), and her articles on women, religion, and Victorian culture have appeared in a range of peer-reviewed journals. Her scholarship has been supported by two awards from the NEH, and she has served as a reviewer/consultant for the NEH, the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program, Ohio State University Press, Wharton School of Business (MBA Writing Challenge), and several scholarly journals.

New Program to Expand Career Opportunities for Ph.D. Students

Sarah Dwyer

NEH Logo MASTER_082010

Duke is giving humanities doctoral students new career paths

Durham, NC – With the help of a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Duke University is creating a program that will enhance the curriculum and expand career opportunities for doctoral students in the humanities.

The three-year grant from the NEH will be matched with a similar amount of funding from the university.  Duke is one of three recipients of an implementation grant, along with the University of Chicago and the University of Delaware.

The program will support skills training relevant for both academic and non-academic career paths, a wide array of new internship opportunities, and curricular innovations that incorporate collaborative research, computational humanities/media, and engagement with policy analysis.

“Duke has made significant investments in interdisciplinary doctoral education for the humanities and interpretive social sciences, as well as resources for career development,” said Ed Balleisen, vice provost for interdisciplinary studies and one of the co-directors of the grant. “We intend to use the NEH grant to amplify the most effective innovations at Duke and to integrate each of these pieces into a more cohesive whole.”

Added Paula D. McClain, the dean of Duke’s Graduate School, “We want to prepare our doctoral students to make a difference, whether within academia, in NGOs, in government agencies or the private sector. From the moment our students arrive on campus, we are working to help them explore and prepare for a wide range of career possibilities.”

These efforts will involve a variety of resources and partners, including:

  • A competitive grants process to encourage Duke departments to develop and test new curricular ideas.
  • Competitive paid internships that offer students relevant perspectives on their dissertation research, as well as experience in project management. Duke will partner with such organizations as RTI International, the National Humanities Center, the American Historical Association and local museums, including the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences and the Durham History Hub.
  • Duke alumni, who will provide networking opportunities, advise students on career paths and explore internships outside of academia.
  • A full-time “navigator” position to support students as they consider co-curricular opportunities and weigh career options, and to help faculty, departmental leaders and alumni similarly support students.

The grant will facilitate partnerships across campus, linking departmental graduate programs to the Graduate School, the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke Libraries, the Social Sciences Research Institute, the Career Center and to Bass Connections, a university-wide initiative that brings together faculty and students of all levels to engage in research to tackle societal challenges.

Since 2003, roughly half of Duke’s Ph.D. recipients in the humanities and interpretive social sciences have found tenure-track positions teaching at colleges and universities. A growing number of graduate students have expressed interest in expanding their training to incorporate such arenas as social entrepreneurship or policy analysis.

“In recent years, we have engaged in efforts to prepare students for non-academic careers, but we can do much more to expand intellectual horizons, extend analytical skills and foster a cultural transformation in how we envisage the societal impacts of humanistic expertise,” said Deborah Jenson, director of the Franklin Humanities Institute and the other co-director of the grant.

“This comprehensive program will establish intellectual versatility as a core goal of our doctoral training,” she added.

Originally published on DukeToday

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Preparing for Job Market, Grad Students Create Online Lessons for Humanities Center

L. Danielle Baldwin

Humanities grad students Hannah Ontiveros and Kelly Tang participated in the NHC pilot program

Doctoral students in the humanities know they’ll be entering a tight job market. This summer, four Duke students gained an edge by building their pedagogical skills at the National Humanities Center in Durham.

Each student chose a text that addresses elements of a standard high school curriculum in American history or literature and created an online National Humanities Center lesson for high school teachers.

Johnnie Holland, a Ph.D. student in History, selected an anti-lynching pamphlet by Ida B. Wells. Ph.D. student in English Karen Little chose “Ballad of the Landlord,” a poem by Langston Hughes. History Ph.D. student Hannah Ontiveros worked with an anti-feminist speech by Phyllis Schlaffly. Kelly Tang, a Ph.D. student in Art, Art History and Visual Studies, took on Citizen 13660, a graphic novel about the internment of Japanese Americans.

The pilot internship program grew out of conversations between Richard Schramm, then the vice president for education programs at the National Humanities Center, and Ed Balleisen, vice provost for interdisciplinary studies at Duke. Four graduate students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill joined the cohort.

“Our meetings were highly collaborative, providing ample opportunity to receive insightful feedback from peers and NHC staff—often from the perspective of what works practically in a classroom and what teachers’ needs are,” Tang said. ”We were encouraged to explore and experiment at every step and were given advice on how to conceptualize our plans, not what they should be.

“And I think we felt a greater awareness of a Triangle-area graduate student community that may individually work on different time periods, source materials and methods, but share an interest in bettering classrooms throughout the United States.”

To create their lessons, the students developed a framing question, orientation for teachers, background information for students, interactive exercises and a follow-up assignment. Over four sessions, they received coaching and critiques of their work in progress from their dissertation advisers.

In an evaluation, students reflected on their experiences, which many noted would enhance their career prospects. The National Humanities Center hopes to offer the program again next summer.

“The internship was a great experience,” said Ontiveros. “It had me thinking critically about not only my pedagogy and writing for a non-academic audience, but also about how to ask the really simple questions that cut to the core of a document—an invaluable skill for a historian. It was also inspiring to work with my fellow interns. Each person’s work raised important and very interesting questions.”

Originally published on Duke Today

Photo: Humanities grad students Kelly Tang and Hannah Ontiveros participated in the NHC pilot program.