Title: "Alt-Ac" and "Post-Ac" Careers in the Humanities: Navigating a Shifting Landscape

1. "Alt-Ac" and "Post-Ac"
Careers in the Humanities:
Kristy Rawson
krawson@umich.edu
Assistant Director for Graduate Career
Development, University of Chicago
Ph.D. (2012) Screen Arts and Cultures, UM
+Graduate Certificate, Latina/o Studies

2. … Navigating a Shifting Landscape

3. What Brings Grad Students to
these presentations?
Your reasons for being might include:
1) The job market is terrible; dreams of
my academic future are in peril
2) I’m ready to get out; the bad academic
job market is secondary.
3) I wasn’t quite sure what this
PhD/future would lead to; I’m here for
ideas

4. CLIR
ACLS Public
Fellows
PMF

5. About Me
• My position is brand new. I start December 1.
The entire unit of Grad Career Development at
UChicago, which is housed in Grad Student
Affairs, is new.
• I’m self taught in this “field” of Alternative
Academic Professional Development. As it’s a
new area of endeavor, I believe it’s growing. I’m
here to share what I know and what I’ve learned.

6. About Me
I learned what I learned through networking on
Twitter. Twitter is where I get the links on my
tumblr blog. Twitter is where I met Julia, it’s how
I followed conference panels on alternative
careers. It’s how I heard about the conference I
recently attended.
I know other academics who feel deeply indebted
to twitter for their “Alternative Academic” jobs.
Twitter is everything.

7. ALT-POST
Launching Adventures in #AltAc and
#PostAc Doctoral Professional
Development.
Exploring the intersection of the over-educated
and the self-taught, because the
job you want may not have been invented
yet.
*MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK*

8. Alternative-Academy
PhD scholars working in positions within the
academy (or in relation to it), but outside of the
professoriate, off the tenure track. Emphasis is on
positions that specifically involve one’s doctoral
research training and expertise.
• University Libraries
• University Presses and Publishing Houses
• University Museums and Cultural Centers
• Digital Humanities Centers and Collectives
• Writing Centers
• Teaching and Learning Centers

9. #AltAc might also include…
Less research focused careers, but still within
higher ed:
• Administration
• Development (i.e. fundraising & donor relations)
• Marketing, Recruitment, international relations
• Faculty Support Services
• (Grad) Student Services
• (Grad) Student Advising
– Including Professional / Career Development

10. Post-Academy
#PostAc – PhD scholars working outside of
the academy. For example, in the public /
non-profit sectors:
• Libraries
• Presses and Publishing Houses
• Museums and Cultural Centers
(Again, development is huge these days.)

11. Post-Academy
#PostAc in the private sector won’t be
getting much attention today, but I do want
to mention opportunities in…
… Journalism and freelance writing
…. Corporate research services, etc.
quantitative (+qualitative) data analysis

12. This is a PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
workshop rather than a job search session…
So we’ll be thinking conceptually, while also
strategizing specific actions.

13. SELF-REFLECTION FREE-WRITING:
ROUND 1
Why did you go to grad school and how have you
changed?
Do you love teaching?
Do you love research and writing?
• Have you considered teaching, research and
writing for a different set of audiences?... a wider
range of subject matters?
Do you love academic institutions?
What kind of job would you invent for yourself?
• What are your feelings about private/corporate
sector work?

14. Alt-Post
This Tumblr is a resource for you to use in
this session, to refer back to later, and to
share with others.
There is a lot of stuff on this site, and I
continually revise and update it. So if its
content appears useful, I recommend you
continue to follow this blog. I also suggest
you consider using tumblr for your own
research purposes. It’s a very easy and cool
tool.

15. Are you familiar with practices of publicly engaged scholarship?

16. That MLA Report

17. …WHERE THE DGS DOES
ALL THE THINGS
“We recommend that the director of graduate studies
(DGS) role be expanded to include responsibility for the
transformation of graduate education” (17).
LOL

18. “Don’t Capitulate. Advocate.”
5. Alt-ac integration. Re-imagine alt-ac as a fundamental
extension of the sphere of the humanities — rather than
as an alternative to it — in sustaining intellectual
environments. This means: advocacy in the classroom,
the association, the department, the scholarly network,
the publishing “market,” and the university itself. Extend
the scope of humanities research throughout the
education system, arts and cultural organizations, and
such — occupying, rebuilding, and refitting existing ones
as well as infusing public discourse. We affirm the
report’s insistence on recognizing the broad diversity of
career paths — not simply to provide Ph.D.s with more
access to jobs but also as a means of infusing and
transforming public discourse with the aim of revaluing
an expanded vision of intellectual labor in the
humanities.

19. I also liked this one from Rebecca Schumann

20. Scholarly Communication
Institute
and its related networks
Keyword and Names:
Katina Rogers (MLA Commons, SCI)
Bethany Nowviskie (Scholars Lab, Alt-
Academy)
Abbey Smith Rumsey (SCI)
Praxis (DH Networks, SCI)
Matrix (MSU’s Praxis)
CLIR (Council on Library and Info Resources)
ACLS (American Council of Learned
Societies)

21. Scholarly Communication Institute
and its related networks
Keyword and Names:
Katina Rogers (HASTAC@CUNY, SCI)
Bethany Nowviskie (Scholars Lab, Alt-
Academy)
Abbey Smith Rumsey (SCI)
Praxis (DH Networks, SCI)
Matrix (MSU’s Praxis,
Cultural Heritage Infomatics)
CLIR (Council on Library and Info Resources)
ACLS (American Council of Learned

22. Are you familiar with practices of publicly engaged scholarship?

23. Translational Humanities
Abbey Smith Rumsey, Director of the Scholarly
Communications Institute (SCI).
"Creating Value and Impact in the Digital Age Through
Translational Humanities."
"...expanding resources for the humanities by expanding
the circle of participants…”
The study of human thought, creativity, and history is
expanding and evolving rapidly owing to the following three
factors:

24. Translational Humanities
1. A growing and increasingly accessible body of content
created by more diverse populations

25. Translational Humanities
2. The availability of more tools for scholars and the public
to interact with the substance of humanistic inquiry.

26. Translational Humanities*
3. The blurring of previously distinct roles of creation,
curation, and consumption.
Boundaries are eroding between expert and non-specialist
audiences… our languages and vocabularies must
broaden and expand if we are to reach these larger – and
often intensely engaged – audiences.

27. Praxis in Translational
Humanities
• Creation
• Collection Building
• Curation
• Stewardship

28. *Creating Value and Impact in the Digital Age Through Translational Humanities

30. Getting Started: Practical Steps
• Searching and Reading Relevant Discourses
• Searching and Analyzing Job Descriptions
• Conversations and Informational Interviews
• Networking
• Projects and Working Groups *(see next
slide)
• Shadowing and Observation
• Volunteering
• Pursuing Internships

31. *Projects and Working Groups – COLLABORATE!
• Learn to Code a little with Code Academy
• Make an Omeka Archive (related to your diss or seminar paper. Start with
Omeka,net, graduate to Omeka.org.)
• Start a blog or tumblr – focused on the public translation of your research.
• Wordpress is easy to get started with; you can do a lot with one site
• Try some social media (twitter) tracking with NodeXL
• Experiment with data-mining and data visualization
• Take Google’s online course “making sense of data”

32. Count and Document
Do you advise students?
Keep numbers and advising evaluations.
Have you shown peers how to archive with Omeka?... advised
others in getting started?
Keep track and ask for testimonials.
Volunteer work?
Look for opportunities to build and share skills.
Again, get testimonials and evaluations.
Talk with career services about how this kind of skill building
can be framed in your professional portfolio.

33. Nuts and Bolts of the Applying
Process:
Transferable Skills
Translating a CV to a Resume
Including Industry Resumes

34. SELF-REFLECTION FREE-WRITING:
ROUND 2
What kind of career would you invent for
yourself?
What kind of additional skills will facilitate you in
this direction?
What actions can you take right away?
What longer-term goals can you set for yourself?
With whom can you collaborate?
Where might you find mentorship?
How can you stay excited – passionate – about
both your present work and your future goals?

35. Explore…Think Big…Stay Open…Keep Moving