In Winter 2018 Professor Julie Ellison (English Language and Literature) will be teaching “Public Humanities at the Crossroads.” Part of Rackham’s Mellon Public Humanities initiative, the seminar asks students to take an interdisciplinary approach to the topic and is framed around three questions – “What is the public project of cultural fields now? What do publicly…
Category: Post-Candidacy
Imagine PhD – Free online Career Exploration and Planning
Launched in October 2017, ImaginePhD is a free online career exploration and planning tool for PhD students and postdoctoral scholars in the humanities and social sciences. Users create a free account to access self-assessment tools, evaluate career-related skills, explore careers paths appropriate to their disciplines, create self-defined goals, and map out next steps for career…
U-M Professional Development Resources for Humanities Graduate Students
The Institute for the Humanities has compiled a comprehensive list of campus resources covering a broad range of professional development concerns. Visit the site to learn about workshops, writing groups, digital humanities training, and many other resources that can help you forge a successful career path.
Career Exploration Activity Packet
The Modern Language Association’s Connected Academics site offers this useful resource to help you actively assess your skills, interests, and values as you think about your career path after the PhD. The career exploration activity packet includes hands-on exercises using real job listings for both tenure track and non-faculty jobs to help you think about how to…
Rackham Professional Development Grants
Available for graduate students at all levels and on a rolling application basis, Rackham Professional Development Grants are intended to support Rackham doctoral students seeking careers both within and outside academia. This funding is to support short-term experiences that promote the development of professional skills which will further a student’s career goals. These grants can support skills…
Career Linguist
Career Linguist is a blog showcasing professions that linguistics PhDs pursue beyond the tenure track. It tracks the professional journeys of people in fields as diverse as consulting, language advocacy, and social media marketing. The blog also includes helpful advice on career transitions and lists current job postings, both of which may be of interest…
Expert Advice on Entering the Non-Academic Workforce
Anne Krook is a former UM professor who now works as a professional consultant and trains graduate and students and postdocs seeking non-academic employment. Her website contains numerous free resources to help you get started in your search and advice on cover letters, interviews, and more.
How to Make the Most of Brief Career Immersions
U of M’s Dr. Laura Schram has been guiding graduate students through internships and career “immersives” for several years. In her latest Inside Higher Ed essay, Dr. Schram shares some best practices for students planning to engage in brief immersive experiences. Her advice can help students make these experiences as useful as possible for their…
The Future of the Humanities PhD
This article discusses several well-known problems facing PhD programs in the humanities, including high attrition rates, long time to degree, and an unbelievably competitive job market. The authors propose radically altering doctoral education to meet the challenges of a changing world and to bring PhD training into the 21st century.
Phil Skills: Stories of Philosophers Who’ve Forged Non-Academic Careers
Phil Skills is a new website put together by two Philosophy PhDs from U of M, which features interviews with philosophers working in fields as broad as academic publishing, immigration law, management consulting, and national defense. They offer advice based on their own experiences navigating the job search and discuss how they use their academic training…