Tag Archives: planning themes

Steering Committee: September Agenda

We just finished our first Project Steering Committee meeting. There were lots of ideas regarding possible curricular changes that were brought forward and discussed in-depth. Our next post will detail some of that discussion.

For now, here is a copy of our meeting agenda:

Project Steering Committee Meeting
September 26, 2016

Meeting Agenda:
  1. Outline practical aspects of the grant
    • Planning themes: curriculum, data, partnerships
    • Meeting schedule for the academic year
    • Interactions between Working Group and Project Steering Committee
    • Sharing information
  2. Updates from NEH and CGS
  3. Discuss inclusion of additional committee members
  4. Share ideas and best practices from other institutions
  5. Share and discuss possible curricular changes to doctoral programs
    • Using qualifying exams to develop real world skills
          –       Define desirable professional skills
    • Embedding elements of GCDI Praxis course into early stages of doctoral coursework
          –       Identify possibilities of working within programs’ course requirements
          –       Possibility of a for-credit interdisciplinary humanities professional development course
          –       Possibility of a three- to five-course humanities professional development certificate program
    • Changes to the form and structure of the dissertation
    • Receiving academic credit for internships, externships, and job shadowing experiences
  6. Building consensus and support among faculty members for any proposed changes

Planning Themes

As “The New PhD: A Renaissance of Public Education” gets underway, we thought it would be beneficial to highlight some components of our three planning themes: (1) curriculum, (2) data, and (3) partnerships. By centering our project on these three themes, we hope to align our aims with those of the Next Generation Humanities Ph.D.

(1) Curriculum

This planning theme intersects with the following Next Generation Humanities Ph.D. themes:
  • Ways to integrate multiple career outcomes from the very beginning of students’ experience in graduate school
  • Ideas for developing new courses and curricula
  • Altered formats or requirements for the Ph.D. dissertation (so that a student could receive a doctorate without producing a research monograph)
Topics and actions we will discuss under this planning theme include:
  • How to include more professionally-oriented skills development opportunities in the humanities doctoral curriculum
  • Implementing professional portfolios and alternatives to the monographic dissertation
  • Building a strong first-year professional development program for all humanities doctoral students
  • Discussing a wider integration of the existing Digital Praxis course (or elements thereof) into a wider compliment of doctoral humanities programs
  • Building consensus and support among faculty members for any proposed changes

(2) Data

This planning theme intersects with the following Next Generation Humanities Ph.D. themes:
  • Commitment to collecting and publicly disseminating data about retention rates and students’ post-doctoral career paths
  • Development of an evaluation plan for future activities and implementation
Topics and actions we will discuss under this planning theme include:
  • How can we better tell the stories of our doctoral students and alumni, both immediately upon graduation and throughout their careers?
  • Possibility of tracking career outcomes of those who leave doctoral programs
  • Developing useful visualizations of this data set
  • Developing metrics to evaluate any proposed changes in curriculum or professional development workshops and programming

(3) Partnerships

This planning theme intersects with the following Next Generation Humanities Ph.D. themes:
  • Experiments in providing financial support for graduate students for activities other than teaching
  • Identification of humanities Ph.D. alumni in various fields to advise or mentor graduate students
  • Initiation of partnerships with non-academic institutions
Topics and actions we will discuss under this planning theme include:
  • Developing and launching of an alumni mentoring database for humanities students
  • Fostering cross-disciplinary conversations with alumni working in a range of fields
  • Developing best practices for connecting with external organizations interested in hiring humanities Ph.D.s
  • Discussing ways to integrate internship experiences into the doctoral curriculum and funding packages