RECORDING: “REFORMING THE ACADEMIC REWARD SYSTEM”

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How can institutions of higher education reimagine their protocols for faculty advancement to account for public engagement, collaborative research, and new interdisciplinary models of intellectual inquiry across humanities fields?

The National Humanities Center (NHC) shared the recording of its Feb. 13 webinar, “Reforming the Academic Reward System,” where panelists Karida L. Brown (Emory University), Jeffrey Cohen (Arizona State University), and Elizabeth (Elee) Wood (The Huntington Library) provided their perspectives.

In an email, the NHC quoted a powerful point by Brown (emphasis added):

“[W. E. B.] Du Bois was a sociologist but he was never just sitting in his office penning his 26 books and thousands of articles. He was also editing The Crisis magazine for the NAACP, making sure that he re-articulated his sociological understandings of the race issue…starting a public conversation… I take those examples from the scholars and academics that were around in the early years of our respective disciplines when there were no subfields… when these boundaries were much more blurred…that is the type of scholarship that I want to do but that is also the type of scholarship that I expect my institution, my discipline, and my field to recognize, acknowledge and reward.”

— Karida L. Brown, Professor of Sociology, Emory University

This panel kicked off an event series presented by the NHC and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences which ponders current challenges facing humanities institutions and practices, and considers how we might forge a path forward using the humanities to build more innovative and resilient communities inside the academy and beyond. Register for the series; additional virtual panel discussions include:

  • Humanistic Dimensions of Environmental Advocacy” – March 1, 3:00–4:30pm ET
  • Planning Inclusive Futures: The Next Decade of the Humanities” – April 4, 3:00–4:30pm ET