The Center for the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis, in collaboration with stakeholders both within and outside of the traditional humanities disciplines, was awarded an NEH Next Generation Humanities PhD planning grant during AY 2016-17 in order to plan for a full reconceptualization of doctoral training in the humanities at our institution.
Our project, titled “Cohorts, Courses, Qualifications, and Careers: Reconceptualizing the Humanities PhD at Washington University,” brought together faculty, administrators, current graduate students and alumni in four working groups, each meeting monthly to address challenges that impact the successive stages of humanities PhD training, from the constitution of incoming cohorts through academic coursework and ABD training/internships through career advising and post-dissertation placement. We also invited four outside consultants from peer institutions, who met with a range of stakeholders both inside and outside the working groups. The white paper we published at the conclusion of our planning period identifies some of the action items that emerged from this work.