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Russell Berman on the Urgent Need to Reform Graduate Study in the Humanities
"Reforming Doctoral Programs," by the former MLA President, represents a significant step toward the hard thinking it will take to begin to change the way humanities doctoral programs do business. Here's an excerpt:
"We should design graduate programs to provide the broad professional development and skills that, while central to an academic career, can also be transferred to other paths. Although some fortunate graduate students land tenure-track positions in research universities or liberal arts college, many do not. Rather than bemoaning this situation, we must recognize that the literature PhD is already a gateway to many different careers. These varied professional directions—which deserve our validation—include opportunities as teachers throughout the educational system as well as non-faculty positions in higher education (see Grafton and Grossman; Jaschik). In addition, the literature PhD can lead to careers in the public humanities, in cultural sectors—publishing, translation, journalism, the film industry—or, frankly, anywhere in business, government, or the not-for-profit world where intensive research skills are at a premium.3 High on my list would be digital abilities, which must become integral to every doctoral program. I would add teaching and other communication capacities, including especially a robust multilingualism—our graduates at the very least ought to have a comparative advantage in language skills."
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Essays and articles by former MLA President Sidonie Smith on reforming graduate education in literary studies and the humanities.
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"No More Plan B: A Very Modest Proposal for Graduate Programs in History,"
By Anthony T. Grafton and Jim Grossman. Here's an excerpt:
"The idea that a doctorate in history prepares one only, or primarily, to teach in a college or university is as contingent as any other, not only historically but also geographically. In Germany—the country that gave us the research university—doctorates in history and similar fields have traditionally been considered appropriate preparation for jobs in publishing, media, business, and politics. A first step towards adjusting graduate education to occupational realities would be to change our attitudes and our language, to make clear to students entering programs in history that we are offering them education that we believe in, not just as reproductions of ourselves, but also as contributors to public culture and even the private sector."
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"OK, Let's Teach Graduate Students Differently. But How?," by Leonard Cassuto. A follow-up to the Grafton and Grossman article above. Cassuto takes up the following concrete question: "If graduate programs embrace the idea that they should aim to produce other kinds of historians as well, it follows that students' training must change." He reviews a number of innovations faculty are trying. Here's an excerpt from the article:
"Professors in other fields can, and should, carve out their own versions of the path that history is trying to blast here. The approaches will naturally differ from discipline to discipline. Graduate students in the lab sciences will need little indoctrination in the spirit of collaboration, for example, because their research already works that way, but the problems for those fields may center on how to contour specialized graduate instruction to the needs of overlapping (and thus more general) audiences."
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Bethany Nowiskie: Create a New Common Core Course for Humanities Graduate Study
Are all today's methods courses "dinosaurs" that should be replaced by a common course in digital humanities and current professional issues across the disciplines? Nowiskie's essay in the Chronicle is sure to infuriate and inspire. A comment thread has already started on her blog.
____________________________________________________________________
Russell Berman on the Urgent Need to Reform Graduate Study in the Humanities
"Reforming Doctoral Programs," by the former MLA President, represents a significant step toward the hard thinking it will take to begin to change the way humanities doctoral programs do business. Here's an excerpt:
"We should design graduate programs to provide the broad professional development and skills that, while central to an academic career, can also be transferred to other paths. Although some fortunate graduate students land tenure-track positions in research universities or liberal arts college, many do not. Rather than bemoaning this situation, we must recognize that the literature PhD is already a gateway to many different careers. These varied professional directions—which deserve our validation—include opportunities as teachers throughout the educational system as well as non-faculty positions in higher education (see Grafton and Grossman; Jaschik). In addition, the literature PhD can lead to careers in the public humanities, in cultural sectors—publishing, translation, journalism, the film industry—or, frankly, anywhere in business, government, or the not-for-profit world where intensive research skills are at a premium.3 High on my list would be digital abilities, which must become integral to every doctoral program. I would add teaching and other communication capacities, including especially a robust multilingualism—our graduates at the very least ought to have a comparative advantage in language skills."
_____________________________________________________________________
Essays and articles by former MLA President Sidonie Smith on reforming graduate education in literary studies and the humanities.
_____________________________________________________________________
"No More Plan B: A Very Modest Proposal for Graduate Programs in History,"
By Anthony T. Grafton and Jim Grossman. Here's an excerpt:
"The idea that a doctorate in history prepares one only, or primarily, to teach in a college or university is as contingent as any other, not only historically but also geographically. In Germany—the country that gave us the research university—doctorates in history and similar fields have traditionally been considered appropriate preparation for jobs in publishing, media, business, and politics. A first step towards adjusting graduate education to occupational realities would be to change our attitudes and our language, to make clear to students entering programs in history that we are offering them education that we believe in, not just as reproductions of ourselves, but also as contributors to public culture and even the private sector."
_____________________________________________________________________
"OK, Let's Teach Graduate Students Differently. But How?," by Leonard Cassuto. A follow-up to the Grafton and Grossman article above. Cassuto takes up the following concrete question: "If graduate programs embrace the idea that they should aim to produce other kinds of historians as well, it follows that students' training must change." He reviews a number of innovations faculty are trying. Here's an excerpt from the article:
"Professors in other fields can, and should, carve out their own versions of the path that history is trying to blast here. The approaches will naturally differ from discipline to discipline. Graduate students in the lab sciences will need little indoctrination in the spirit of collaboration, for example, because their research already works that way, but the problems for those fields may center on how to contour specialized graduate instruction to the needs of overlapping (and thus more general) audiences."
_____________________________________________________________________
Bethany Nowiskie: Create a New Common Core Course for Humanities Graduate Study
Are all today's methods courses "dinosaurs" that should be replaced by a common course in digital humanities and current professional issues across the disciplines? Nowiskie's essay in the Chronicle is sure to infuriate and inspire. A comment thread has already started on her blog.
For students, it's always good to set their own goals and in the future times what do they what to fulfill. In this way, they could keep track what path they want to pursue.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that reform would be necessary. All it needs is a little tweak. I know that they should focus on improvement. If implemented, does it apply to students that are currently enrolled on the graduate school or it should be only applied on the incoming batch.
ReplyDelete