The Public Humanities and Beyond: A Forum with Paul Yachnin and Scott Krawcyck
Speaker(s): Kathryn Temple (moderator), Beth Harlan (respondent)
Event Type: Discussion Forum
Department: Georgetown College, Classics, Comparative Literature Program, Performing Arts, English,German, History, Italian, Linguistics, Philosophy,Spanish and Portuguese, Theology, Lannan Center, Women’s and Gender Studies Program,Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Humanities Working Group
Date and Time: Friday, March 16, 2018 at 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Location: New North, 311, 37th and O St., N.W., Washington
“The idea that a Ph.D. can prepare you for diverse careers — not just for the professoriate — is now firmly with us.” — Leonard Cassuto, Author, The Graduate School Mess: What Caused It and How We Can Fix It
Come join Connected Academics at Georgetown University for a discussion on how to reinvent graduate education in the humanities (and find out why the “barista myth” is just a myth).This panel will bring together Paul Yachnin (McGill University) and Scott Krawczyk (Long Island University), who come with extensive knowledge on mentoring graduate students for diverse careers in the humanities. The discussion will focus on the question of what academic institutions, faculty, and graduate students can do to foster a broader awareness of — and excitement for — career pathways outside of academia. The event will also hold a Q&A. This conversation will be especially pertinent if you are a graduate student who is interested in:
– rethinking the narrative of your master’s or doctoral journey,
– practicing strategies for pursuing fulfilling careers in a variety of settings (from think tanks and academic administration to nonprofit and private industry roles),
– and translating skills and habits of thought central to a graduate education.
Funded by: Connected Academics, a Mellon-funded project of the MLA.
Bios: Scott Krawczyk is Dean of the Richard L. Conolly College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Long Island University, Brooklyn. He has held teaching and leadership positions at West Point, Georgetown, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Northern Virginia Community College. While serving as the Director of the Federal/State Partnership at NEH, he funded, oversaw, and evaluated public humanities programs in all 50 states. He is the author of Romantic Literary Families and a volume co-editor for the Collected Works of Anna Letitia Barbauld, to be published by Oxford UP.
Paul Yachnin is the Tomlinson Professor of Shakespeare Studies at McGill University. In addition to his publications on early modern literature and culture, he works on higher education practice and policy, focusing on the humanities PhD. He has published in Policy Options, University Affairs, Cogent Arts & Humanities, GradEdge, and Humanities, and was lead author of the White Paper on the Future of the PhD in the Humanities. He has led multiple successful projects in the future of humanities, including the TRaCE Project, which tracked the career pathways of 2,800 humanities PhD graduates from 24 Canadian universities. Presently, he is working on the Humanities PhD Futures Project and TRaCE 2.0.
Kathryn Temple, J.D., Ph.D., former chair of the English Department at Georgetown University, is the Georgetown principal investigator on the Mellon-funded grant, Connected Academics: Preparing Doctoral Students of Language and Literature for a Variety of Careers. She publishes on subjects related to Law & the Humanities and the History of Emotion. Her current book project, Loving Justice: Blackstone’s Commentaries, Legal Emotions, and Anglo-American Conceptions of Justice, will be issued by NYU Press in Spring 2019.
Beth Harlan is Associate Director for Career Education & Counseling at the Cawley Career Education Center. She came to Georgetown in August 2009 with experience in undergraduate student affairs and international programs. She earned a Master of Arts in Counseling from Wake Forest University and a Bachelor of Science degree in human and organizational development from Vanderbilt University. Beth is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the District of Columbia and is also certified by the National Board for Certified Counselors.