Professor Bruce Hayes (Department of French, University of Kansas) has developed a required seminar called Intro to Grad Studies for graduate students in French, Slavic and German. The course combines an introduction to literary theory and criticism with technology training, conference paper preparation, and discussions about the academic job market. Download the syllabus for the course which…
Category: Course Innovation
Mellon Public Humanities Courses at U of M
As part of the Mellon Humanities Doctorate in the Twenty-first Century initiative at Michigan, four faculty each year are developing courses designed to increase doctoral students’ capacities for a wider range of careers. The goal is to integrate these courses, and others like them, into departmental curricula.
Incorporating Professional Development into Graduate Seminars
Due to changes in the availability of humanities tenure-track positions, programs in the humanities have become more interested in ways of expanding the training they offer to graduate students. Course Innovation Resource to introduce readers to assignments and projects that enhance traditional graduate curricula in the humanities and impart crucial skills to increase their employment…
Syllabus: The Many Professions of History
This syllabus by Professor Stephen Aron at UCLA is an example of “a professional development seminar with a practicum component.” In addition to exploring in depth the many professions that historians pursue, the course has a substantial collaborative component, requiring students to engage with digital tools and develop research skills that apply to a broad…
Small Steps Towards Curricular Change
This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education highlights efforts by faculty at universities around the country to create new courses that help students understand careers beyond the professoriate, transform graduate seminars to meet the changing demands of the post-PhD job market, and embed transferable skills into graduate study.
UNC Chapel Hill Professional Development Courses
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill offers a series of mini-courses through the graduate school that build professional skills not typically taught in graduate seminars. They cover topics like professional communication and presentation skills, leadership, and project management. The small time commitment they require makes them an attractive addition to graduate students’ schedules.
Bass Connections
Duke University has launched a university-wide initiative to develop connections across disciplines and create a new model for education by helping students apply what they learn in the classroom to pressing problems in the world. The site contains course descriptions that offer models for tackling issues of popular concern through collaborative and applied research.
Syllabus: Theories and Methodologies of Public History and Culture
University of Michigan professor of history Matthew Countryman created this course on public scholarship, which “asks why and how scholars should make public engagement a central component of their scholarly practice. What are the best practices and methods for engaging the public in scholarly inquiry?”
Innovative Courses at the Simpson Center for the Humanities
The Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington offers courses at the graduate level that reflect its commitments to crossdisciplinary research, digital humanities, and public scholarship.
Georgetown Course: Humanities in the Community
This course, developed by Dr. Sherry Linkon at Georgetown University, takes up debates around the public value of the humanities, discussing the claims made by various commentators, from advocates and critics of the social value humanities as well as from scholars who study social change and community organizing. It pursues a practical approach by exploring strategies for using…