April 3, 2003
Institute on Public Humanities is first of its kind
The Simpson Center for the Humanities is hosting a project that is the first of its kind in the country: An Institute on the Public Humanities for Doctoral Students.
The goal is to expose Ph.D. humanities students to the world of public scholarship — the variety of ways in which academics can connect with the community and communicate their research to the public.
“More and more institutions are interested in promoting engagement with the community,” says Margit Dementi, associate director of the Simpson Center and co-director of the institute, along with the center’s director, Kathleen Woodward. “But the ideas of public scholarship have not been integrated into doctoral education.”
“Connecting with the Community,” as the institute will be known, is seeking applicants for this first session, to be held Sept. 15–19, with an application deadline of April 14. This first institute is limited to 25 students. A $500 stipend will be awarded to all participants.
The institute will present models of campus-community partnerships in the humanities, drawn from the UW and other colleges and universities. Participants will work in small teams to imagine ways in which their research can reach the broader public, and some may elect to design such projects.
Most sessions will meet on campus, but there will be trips off site, to places in the community where public scholarship occurs, such as Seattle Arts & Lectures, the Seattle Art Museum and The Center for Liberal Arts at Bellevue Community College.
“We are fortunate to have a number of faculty who are engaged in public scholarship,” Woodward says. “The institute will provide students with ways of thinking about what some regard as a ‘fourth portfolio,’ an addition to research, teaching and service. We’ll also be talking with leaders of local cultural organizations that reach out to the broader public.”
Dementi says this first institute will create ways that UW faculty and administrators can learn from doctoral students. “We’ve thought about ways that the concept of public humanities can be integrated into doctoral education, but we believe that some of the best ideas are likely to come from students,” she says. “We don’t want to propose simply adding an additional requirement onto their education. We regard the institute very much as a pilot project. The recommendations of these students will be presented to the executive board of the Simpson Center, to the chairs of humanities departments, and to the Graduate School.”
While some universities have begun to offer separate degrees in the public humanities, no institution has found a way to incorporate those ideas in all fields for the preparation of doctoral students whose future is likely to lie in academia. “Our goal is to make the public humanities part of the vocabulary of doctoral education,” Dementi says. “This should serve the faculty, the humanities disciplines, the public and students. But we need to approach this in a thoughtful way.”
The public profile of the humanities is growing, both around the country and in Seattle. Locally, significant projects include the Wednesday University, a program of Seattle Arts & Lectures and the Simpson Center, which offers three courses a year taught by UW faculty and intended for the general public — and which has sold out nearly every offering. The Seattle Humanities Forums are cooperative ventures between the Simpson Center and various arts and cultural organizations, designed to share humanistic learning with the community. And there are a multiplicity of programs involving UW faculty and K-12 teachers.
“Our expectations for faculty are changing, too,” Dementi says. “The College of Arts and Sciences has recognized that tenured faculty may wish to focus on different aspects of the University’s mission at various career stages. Public scholarship is increasingly becoming part of the way that this University and others think about their role and contribution to their community.”
Although the institute is not specifically designed to broaden the career horizons of doctoral students in the humanities, Dementi acknowledges that for many of them the career prospects are challenging. “One benefit of the institute is that students who are exposed to additional career options are likely to feel more hopeful about their future – and, in addition, they will have the ability to develop a portfolio that helps to differentiate them from other recent graduates. We’re living in an increasingly mobile society, in terms of the job market. This experience will be relevant to doctoral students, regardless of what they plan to do.”
While the first class of the first institute has yet to meet, the organizers already envision it as a national model and potentially as a national event, if they can raise the necessary funds. The current institute is an initiative of The Responsive Ph.D. project and is supported by the Graduate School and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. More information is available from the Simpson Center for the Humanities, uwch@u. washington.edu, www.uwch.org, 206-543-3920.
