Humanists@Work Podcast

How are universities developing service learning programs that train humanities graduate students to combine teaching and civic engagement? How can these programs expand the role of the humanities public scholar and educator (the teaching-assistant), as well as lead to alternative career paths within and beyond the academy? Beth Goodhue (Associate Director for Engaged Teaching, UCLA Center for Community Learning) and Lisa Felipe (Director, Excellence in Pedagogy and Innovative Classrooms [EPIC] Program) sit down with Helga Zambrano (Humanists@Work Graduate Advisory Committee, 2015-16) to discuss service learning and diversity education offered at the UCLA Center for Community Learning and within humanities departments at UCLA. The program trains humanities graduate student to work alongside faculty to develop a rigorous academic humanities curriculum centered around issues of social justice and diversity that can also directly engage with community-based service. These projects encourage pathways to reimagine the humanities teaching experience within and beyond the classroom and offer valuable professional experience for a variety of careers.

How are universities developing new curricula to train humanities graduate students for public humanities work and for a variety of career pathways? John Marx (Professor of English, UC Davis) and Molly McCarthy (Associate Director, UC Davis Humanities Institute) sit down with Simon Abramowitsch (Humanists@Work Graduate Advisory Committee) to discuss the launch of the Mellon Public Scholars Program at UC Davis. The program allows graduate students to engage in community-based summer research projects alongside faculty mentors. These projects aim to encourage collaboration with multiple publics and provide graduate students with experience that will translate to a variety of careers.

ACLS Director of Public Programs John Paul Christy and three former and current fellows from University of California schools each answer five questions about the ACLS Public Fellows program: how the program developed, how successful fellows prepared, and what advice these experts have for interested applicants. An important listen before 2016 fellowship applications are due on March 24! In this episode, we speak with one of ACLS’s first Public Fellows, Laurel Voloder, who holds a PhD in Literature from UC Santa Cruz. During her fellowship tenure at the US State Department, she held two positions: Foreign Affairs Officer in the Office of International Religious Freedom, and Program Officer in the Office of International Visitors. Voloder used her fellowship to network with government employees, acclimate to work outside of academia, and learn about the application process for jobs in the federal government. She advises potential applicants, “it’s important to show that you're genuinely interested in public service as your first choice” and explains that host organizations may notice if the position they are offering is your Plan B in case the academic job market doesn’t work out.

ACLS Director of Public Programs John Paul Christy and three former and current fellows from University of California schools each answer five questions about the ACLS Public Fellows program: how the program developed, how successful fellows prepared, and what advice these experts have for interested applicants. An important listen before 2016 fellowship applications are due on March 24! In this episode, we speak with Michael Ursell, Deputy Executive Editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books. In this role, Ursell, who holds a PhD in Literature from UC Santa Cruz, carries out a variety of editing and communications projects for the Los Angeles-based literature and culture magazine. Ursell encourages potential applicants to “think a little differently about your experience as a grad student.” For example, Ursell states that many Public Fellows positions require some form of project management and suggests that applicants think of the work that they’ve conducted in graduate school—from managing grant funding to teaching assistantships and graduate research positions—as project management experience that will be desirable to host organizations.

ACLS Director of Public Programs John Paul Christy and three former and current fellows from University of California schools each answer five questions about the ACLS Public Fellows program: how the program developed, how successful fellows prepared, and what advice these experts have for interested applicants. An important listen before 2016 fellowship applications are due on March 24! In this episode, we speak with Rob Schoenbeck, ACLS Public Fellow and Partnerships Evaluations Manager at Kiva, a nonprofit lending organization. Schoenbeck earned a PhD in English from UC Irvine in 2012 and began his fellowship at Kiva in September 2014. In his role at Kiva, Schoenbeck analyzes the effectiveness of Kiva’s partnerships by benchmarking partner activities against evidence-based practices. He advises potential applicants to be mindful of the “two audiences” for the fellowship application: ACLS and the host organization. According to Schoenbeck, “My main piece of advice really is to know your two audiences for the fellowship and to understand what your strengths are as a candidate with respect to each audience because they might be very different.” He explains that while ACLS looks to see how graduate training connects directly to career preparedness, employers may be more focused on how relevant skills earned in graduate school and beyond are suited for the position they wish to fill.

ACLS Director of Public Programs John Paul Christy and three former and current fellows from University of California schools each answer five questions about the ACLS Public Fellows program: how the program developed, how successful fellows prepared, and what advice these experts have for interested applicants. An important listen before 2016 fellowship applications are due on March 24! In this episode, John Paul Christy describes how the Public Fellows programs highlights the manner in which a doctorate in the humanities can be suited to diverse range of professions. Christy states that one of the goals of the program is to encourage graduate students and their advisors to see earning a doctorate as work that helps individuals develop a variety of skills that are in high demand at organizations outside the academy. He encourages potential applicants to “make the most of the brief space you have in your application materials to make your case.” Christy adds that applicants should learn as much as they can about the host organization they wish to join and use their cover letter to make the case of why the position they are applying to is the “logical next step in [their] career path.”

How has the 2016 MLA convention in Austin responded to graduate student needs and concerns around professionalizing for a variety of careers post graduation? Humanists@Work participants including University of California graduate students and UCHRI staff share their experiences with and thoughts about the convention, and look ahead to ways in which the university can better support humanities grads.