Recorded by March 8, 2019

Across the country, leaders of PhD programs in the humanities face a conundrum. How can a department honor the subjects, methods, and practices of their disciplines while also preparing graduates for diverse careers?

To inspire our thinking, we have invited directors of some of the most imaginative programs across the country for an Obermann Working Symposium as part of the Andrew W. Mellon–funded Humanities for the Public Good initiative. The daylong program will be held Friday, March 8 at the Iowa City Public Library. Everyone is welcome.

What would an introductory course for an interdisciplinary humanities PhD look like? What can we learn from alumni in varied careers? How are departments preparing students to create digital and publicly engaged scholarship? To work collaboratively? How can we weave experiential learning into graduate studies? How can we best support humanities graduate students from underrepresented groups? What alternatives to the proto-monograph dissertation might serve students seeking careers in administration, curriculum development, government, non-profits, and publishing?

Speakers will share program descriptions, research, and topics for discussion in advance. You’ll find those materials along with biographies and a detailed schedule on our website soon. That way, we can dig right into their objectives, challenges, emerging discoveries, and, in some cases, radical provocations in each session.