Stories from the Field Berkeley
UC Humanities PhDs share their stories as humanists at work in the world.
Read more
Final Reflections
Reflections on Humanists@Work from the graduate students who helped lead the initiative.
Teaching at the Community Colleges That First Believed in Us
Two Graduate Advisory Committee members discuss their experiences teaching for community college—where they themselves started their postsecondary careers.
On Collaboration
HumWork team member Shana Melnysyn explores the concept of collaboration and how it is (or isn’t) used in the humanities.
Illegible and Irrelevant?: The Risk of Humanists@Work
Elizabeth Allen explores the term “humanistic,” arguing that the word both illuminates and hides the work of humanities PhDs, particularly to those outside the academy.
Humanists Breaking Into the World of Business and Entrepreneurship
Two Graduate Advisory Committee members share their experiences as humanities PhD students taking business-oriented certificate programs.
Language Barriers: Some Thoughts on What We Value and How We Talk About it in Academic vs. Non-academic Settings
Graduate Advisory Committee member Jacob Heim explores the question of whether it’s a good time to be pursuing a humanities PhD.
Careers in Instructional Design: Applying Humanities-Based Pedagogy Beyond Classroom Teaching
HumWork community member Sarah Papazoglakis discusses storytelling and professional narratives as she looks into careers in instructional design.
Beyond the Impostor
Gabriela Cázares looks at the term impostor syndrome—particularly for underrepresented students—asking the important question: when the university is not made for you, why would you want to fit in?
Caught Between Less is More and Doing Less for More
HumWork project director Kelly Anne Brown asks what sustainability means for grad student professionalizaiton in a university system dependent on cheap labor.
The Myopia of the Academy and the Future of the Humanities
Former UCHRI intern Elizabeth Allen argues why the academic community should not be separate from the greater public.
Stories from the Field: Riverside
UC Humanities PhDs share their stories as humanists at work in the world.
“Unbecoming Academic”
Podcast and video from the HumWork Riverside “Unbecoming Academic” session.
Are certificate programs useful for humanities PhD students?
Graduate Advisory Committee member Maïko Le Lay explores whether humanities graduate students should consider pursuing certificate programs alongside their PhDs.
Reflections from the Past and Current Graduate Advisory Committee
Current and past Graduate Advisory Committee members reflect on their experiences and the past, present, and future of Humanists@Work.
Candid Conversations: Debt in the Humanities
Video from the Debt and the Humanities session at HumWork Silicon Valley.
Stories from the Field: HumWork Silicon Valley
Video from the Stories from the Field session at HumWork Silicon Valley.
Why Wait? Early Explorations of Career Paths for Humanities PhDs
Part 4: Broaden Your Search & Learn More…Without Working for Free
Rebecca Lippman outlines how to identify available training opportunities and relevant (paid) work experiences for humanities PhDs.
Money, Debt and Shame: Financing Our Humanist Futures
Graduate Advisory Committee member Dorie Perez reflects on the Humanists@Work Silicon Valley Workshop, particularly the conversation on debt.
Time To Build Early Career Exploration into the PhD Timeline
Meg Sparling advocates for the need for doctoral students to explore careers early and to integrate this exploration into their research process to extract greater professional and personal value from their degree.
“Why don’t they care” or better yet, Why should they* care?
Sabrina Smith makes an argument for why humanities faculty should care about institutional and departmental tracking of doctoral students post-degree.
Why Wait? Early Explorations of Career Paths for Humanities PhDs
Part 3: Analyze Results
Graduate Advisory Committee member Rebecca Lippman describes the complexity of bridging the gap between academic experiences and employment opportunities.
Why Wait? Early Explorations of Career Paths for Humanities PhDs
Part 2: Where do people “write” at Google?
Graduate Advisory Committee member Rebecca Lippman describes how humanities PhDs can find job opportunities in unexpected organizations.
Why Wait? Early Explorations of Career Paths for Humanities PhDs
Part 1: Kicking off an Exploratory Job Search for Humanists@Work
Graduate Advisory Committee member Rebecca Lippman advises humanities PhDs on how (and where) to begin an exploratory job search.
Candid Conversations: Debt
Candid Conversations is an opportunity for faculty, graduate students, and university staff to engage in dialogue around the issue of debt, a topic that is inadequately addressed in conversations on career pathways and professionalization.
Building and Sustaining Support for Community-Engaged Graduate Education: A View from across the University of California
In this hands-on workshop, participants will discuss models to expand support for community-engaged teaching, research, and professional development in graduate programs and humanities centers across the University of California system.
A Call for Community: A Survey of Humanities PhD Students on Professionalization and Support
Graduate Advisory Committee members present survey data addressing attitudes towards post degree employment, on-campus resources for career exploration, and feelings of support from departments, campuses, and peers.
Connected Academics Summer Institute Reflections: Connected Work
HumWork team member Shane Breitenstein reflects on his experience as a graduate student at the Connected Academics Summer Institute
Connected Academics Summer Institute Reflections: Collaboration in Action
Kelly Anne Brown and Stacy Hartman describe their experiences planning the Connected Academics Summer Institute.
Connected Academics Summer Institute Reflections: Empowering Graduate Students
Connected Academics Summer Institute participants reflect on what it means to empower graduate students.
Humanities in Action: Service Learning at UCLA
Graduate Advisory Committee member Helga Zambrano interviews professionals who focus on service learning at UC Los Angeles.
Stories from the Field: Jessica Collier
In this Stories from the Field video, Jessica Collier talks about how her career path took shape after receiving her PhD.
Meet the 2016-17 Graduate Advisory Committee
We asked the incoming Graduate Advisory Committee to discuss what they were looking forward to accomplishing during their tenure.
Humanists@Work Now
An argument for transforming the humanities to meet the needs of new constituencies, increasing the diversity of students and faculty, and stimulating a demand for rigorous humanistic inquiry as value, necessity, and right.
Building Collaborative Communities
Video from the Building Collaborative Communities session.
Working from Within: Career Center Reflections on Humanities PhD Professionalization
Video from the Working from Within: Career Center Reflections on Humanities PhD Professionalization session.
Navigating a Path from Campus to Career
Video from the Navigating a Path from Campus to Career session at HumWork Santa Barbara.
Stories from the Field: HumWork Santa Barbara
Video from the HumWork Santa Barbara Stories from the Field session.
Final Thoughts from the Humanists@Work 2015-16 Graduate Advisory Committee
We asked the outgoing Graduate Advisory Committee to describe what they thought was the biggest challenge HumWork continued to face when it came to graduate student professionalization.
Resume Redux: Using the Writing Process as a Tool for Career Discovery
Video from the Résumé Redux session at HumWork Los Angeles.
LinkedIn for Humanists
Video from the LinkedIn for Humanists session at HumWork Los Angeles.
Stories from the Field: HumWork Los Angeles
Video from the HumWork LA Stories from the Field session.
Interviews: Career Success from UC Davis (Part II)
Graduate Advisory Committee member Simon Abramowitsch interviews two PhDs candidates in the UC Davis English Department who conducted successful alt-ac job searches this year (Part II).
Interviews: Career Success from UC Davis (Part I)
Graduate Advisory Committee member Simon Abramowitsch interviews two PhDs candidates in the UC Davis English Department who conducted successful alt-ac job searches this year (Part I).
Making the Move: 10 Things Transitioning Academics Should Know about Office Work (Part II)
HumWork community member Amanda Cornwall describes 10 Things Transitioning Academics Should Know about Office Work (Part II).
Candid Conversations Video Dialogue
Candid conversations videos and the subsequent panel discussion at Humanists@Work Los Angeles provide opportunities to engage in open dialogue about the faculty-graduate student mentorship model, particularly as it relates to career training for diverse professions.
Making the Move: 10 Things Transitioning Academics Should Know about Office Work (Part I)
HumWork community member Amanda Cornwall describes 10 Things Transitioning Academics Should Know about Office Work (Part I).
Humanists in Action: The UC Davis Mellon Public Scholars
John Marx and Molly McCarthy sit down with Simon Abramowitsch to discuss the launch of the Mellon Public Scholars Program at UC Davis
Candid Conversations Video Dialogues (AHA & MLA)
A national video dialogue between humanities PhD students, faculty, and PhDs at work in the world on the subject of mentorship, particularly as it relates to diverse careers.
Working Outside the Box: My Internship Experience
Former UCHRI intern Ellie Kriegs reflects on her experiences working in academic administration.
‘Leaning In’ Without Selling Out: When #HumWork Goes Hi-Tech
Graduate Advisory Committee member Dana Linda interviews two women with humanities PhDs who are navigating careers in tech organizations.
Theorizing Our Moment: Getting Real about Humanistic Work
An argument for a space for graduate students to discuss struggles, theorize about how best to resolves these issues, and discuss the resources available for implementing interventions.
Five Questions for ACLS Podcast
In this podcast, Humanists@Work interviews four individuals with firsthand experience of the ACLS Public Fellows Program.
Internship Tips for Grad Students
Graduate Advisory Committee member Christina Green offers advice for PhD students seeking to make the most out of their internships.
Humanists@Work Podcast Launch
For our inaugural podcast, we tackle how the 2016 MLA convention in Austin responded to graduate student professionalization needs and concerns and look ahead to ways in which the university can better support graduate students.
Humanist & Entrepreneur: Reflections and Resources
Lauri Mattenson offers “reflections and resources” about expanding your professional identity in order to find the right kind of work.
Networking Workshop and Dinner, DTLA
Authentic networking is built on an exchange that is not transactional, and instead built upon engagements where we come into contact with one another with a desire to learn about, and share, expertise and interests.
Humanists@Work Graduate Career Conference Was Not Just for Students
A call to UC humanities faculty members to show up, listen, and get involved in HumWork activities.
Résumé Redux: Using the Writing Process as a Tool for Career Discovery
Video from the Resume Redux session at HumWork Sacramento
HumWork Sacramento: Stories from the Field
Video from the Stories from the Field session at HumWork Sacramento.
#BlackLivesMatter and the Work of the Humanities
Graduate Advisory Committee member Simon Abramowitsch argues that the #BlackLivesMatter movement should inspire humanists to think about the public-facing implications of their work.
My Story: How I Reimagined My Resume
Shawn Warner-Garcia offers guiding principles that helped her reimagine and redesign my resume.
Beginning with the Lack of an End in Mind: Growth and Experimentation in the Job Search
HumWork community member Rob Schoenbeck advocates for a more experimental method of job searching.
Authoring Your Own Career Narrative
Nicole Robinson advises humanities PhD students to rethink their narrative when they decide that it’s time to look for alternative careers.
More than How-To: A Practical Breakdown of a Successful Interview
Nicole Robinson advises graduate students in how to tackle job interviews in a way that showcases the potential contributions of humanities PhDs.
What a Humanist@Work Looks Like
Inspired by the #thisiswhatanengineerlookslike and similar campaigns, we want to feature humanists at work in the world.
Stories from the Field: Marisol Cortez
Marisol Cortez speaks of her work as a social movement-based scholar and community organizer in San Antonio, TX.
Stories from the Field: Kelly Anne Brown
Kelly Anne Brown, UCHRI’s assistant director, talks about her transition from graduate school to university administration.
Stories from the Field: Laurel Seely Voloder
Laurel Seely Voloder talks about her transition from graduate school to an ACLS Public Fellows post doc with the State Department.
Exploring Options for Humanities PhDs
Video from the Exploring Career Options for Humanities PhD session of HumWork San Diego.
5 From a Professional: Nicole Balsamo
5 from a Professional is a series for Humanities PhDs to learn about a variety of career fields from leaders currently working in these positions.
Theorizing Our Moment
At our Humanists@Work San Diego workshop, participants were invited to answer some questions posted around the room, either by making a sign and snapping a polaroid with it, or by using large sticky notes and construction paper.
I Stand Corrected. By Myself. A Companion Piece to Brown’s Stories from the Field
Kelly Anne Brown responds to her own video interview about her experiences transitioning from graduate school into university administration.
Happy 1st Birthday, HumWork!
Kelly Anne Brown and Anna Finn reflect back on the last year of work and look forward to the exciting new developments to come.
HumWork San Diego: The Art of the Informational Interview
Video from the Art of the Informational Interview session at HumWork San Diego.
HumWork San Diego: Stories from the Field
Video from the HumWork San Diego Stories from the Field session.
Career Directions, or, What Do You Have to Show for Your Efforts?
A reflection on the HCCW workshop.
12 Step Program: Advice from a Doctoral Student (Part II)
Whitney De Vos outlines 12 steps for graduate students interested in shaping their graduate professional experiences to better prepare themselves for diverse careers (Part II).
$347,000 Grant to Strengthen Humanities PhD Career Preparation
Humanists@Work has received a $347,000 grant from the Modern Language Association’s Connected Academics initiative.
12 Step Program: Advice from a Doctoral Student (Part I)
Whitney De Vos outlines 12 steps for graduate students interested in shaping their graduate professional experiences to better prepare themselves for diverse careers (Part I).
Making a Case for Humanities Internships
Kelly Anne Brown advocates for more internship opportunities for humanities PhDs.
