URI among 28 schools to receive $25K grant to boost humanities graduate studies

KATHLEEN DAVIS, a professor of English at the University of Rhode Island, will lead an effort to help doctoral students in the humanities identify alternative career paths through new partnerships, internships and changes to the curriculum. / COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
KATHLEEN DAVIS, a professor of English at the University of Rhode Island, will lead an effort to help doctoral students in the humanities identify alternative career paths through new partnerships, internships and changes to the curriculum. / COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The University of Rhode Island has received a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to research how to improve career prospects for graduate students in the humanities.
URI is one of 28 colleges and universities across the nation that are being helped by a total of $1.65 million in grants for what the NEH is calling “Next Generation PhD.”
“The academic-focused future we’re accustomed to training graduate students for is disappearing,’’ said NEH Chairman William D. Adams in a statement. “If graduate programs wish to make a case for the continuation of graduate education in the humanities, they’re going to have to think about the professional futures of their students in entirely different ways.’’
Kathleen Davis will direct the URI project, which will develop cross-disciplinary and experiential learning for humanities Ph.D. students that will focus on areas of study that the university believes it has specific strengths: the coastal environment, cultural organizations in the community, digital humanities and “big data,” health and medicine, and publishing and editing.
As its core, the program is designed to help students who are performing research in humanities disciplines find career opportunities other than in traditional academic settings that use their skills.
According to a release from URI, at least 30 faculty members, administrators, graduate students and alumni are expected to take part in Next Generation PhD, led by Davis, a professor of English. She said that the project look at creating partnerships, internships and new collaborations, as well as examine potential changes to the school’s curriculum.
“Faculty and students alike at URI believe that higher education must invest in transforming the doctoral experience, not only to prepare students for a changing job market, but also to bring the skills of humanities students to bear on complex 21st-century problems like climate change,’’ said Davis.

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