It’s great to see our community engage in some reflective thinking about the nature, structure, and priorities of the English program. It will surprise no one that I’d love to see the program engage the digital humanities more directly, in ways that would build upon the GC’s growing strengths in this area (see the websites for GC Digital Initiatives https://gcdi.commons.gc.cuny.edu/ and the CUNY Digital Humanities Initiative https://cunydhi.commons.gc.cuny.edu/ for sample projects and recent talks)
* What changes do networked reading and communication devices/platforms portend for the way we understand digital textuality and encounter texts of various kinds?
Aside from questions specific to DH, I wonder whether we might also situate this discussion within larger trends in academe. Here are some starting questions:
* To what extent does our program require/encourage/foster the kinds of skills that are valued across a range of careers?
As we think through these issues, I’d encourage members of the department to read through Katina Rogers’s Mellon-funded report, _Humanities Unbound: Supporting Careers and Scholarship Beyond the Tenure Track_ http://libra.virginia.edu/catalog/libra-oa:3480 , which reports on an investigation into perceptions about career preparation provided by humanities graduate programs.
For those short on time, here is a direct link to the Executive Summary: http://katinarogers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Rogers_SCI_Survey_Executive-summary_09AUG13.pdf . I would particularly encourage a collective program discussion of the recommended actions for graduate departments:
* Evaluate and modify required aspects of graduate-level curricula in favor of including courses that help students to prepare for the wide-ranging career paths that they may pursue upon completion.
* Rethink standard methods courses to structure them around a collaborative project in which students must apply a range of skills toward an end goal centered on methodological understanding.
* Cultivate partnerships with the public sphere, both to provide graduate students with valuable experience and exposure, and to make a clearer case for the public value of humanities education.
* Encourage (and provide funding for) students to become members in relevant professional associations, even if the students do not intend to pursue careers as faculty.
* Work to expand the understanding of what constitutes scholarship. Encourage faculty to develop collaborative project assignments that allow students to work together in a variety of roles and to communicate their findings to an array of audiences.
* Critically examine the kinds of careers that are implicitly and explicitly promoted to students, and consider ways to increase the visibility of the varied paths that scholars pursue.
* Make a much stronger effort to track former students (including those who may not have completed a degree), and to encourage current and prospective students to connect with former students.
I look forward to the “Open Letters” discussion process and thank the program for creating this space for conversation.