At the 2021 MLA Annual Convention, Chris Golde, Stanford U, organized and presided over a special session on graduate education: “Reforming Graduate School: Theories, Practices, and Goals.” The session was described thus:
A broadening consensus has emerged in recent years that graduate education has fundamental problems, but that recognition does not make the solutions obvious. Participants showcase some successful strategies for practical reforms from campuses around the country.
Speakers included Benjamin Reiss, Emory U, Maria LaMonaca Wisdom, Duke U, Augusta Rohrbach, Tufts U, Leonard Cassuto, Fordham U, Lincoln Center. After the session, Golde, the participants, and many attendees created this list of resources.
Resources and Ideas
- Versatile Humanists at Duke. https://sites.duke.edu/versatilehumanists (contact: Maria Wisdom, Maria.Wisdom@duke.edu)
- National Academies Report on Graduate education: https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/reshaping-graduate-stem-education-for-the-21st-century
- Stanford’s Humanists at Large program. https://beam.stanford.edu/hal (contact: Chris Golde, golde@stanford.edu)
- The Public Humanities pilot program at UBC: https://publichumanities.ubc.ca/
- The PublicsLab at The Graduate Center, CUNY: https://publicslab.gc.cuny.edu/
- Doctoral Student Career Planning: A Guide for Programs and Departments: https://connect.mla.hcommons.org/doctoral-student-career-planning-faculty-toolkit/
- “We All Have Levers We Can Pull” (LA Review of Books, July 2020)
- Connected Academics, MLA: Connected Academics | A Modern Language Association initiative
- Job Information List Blog, MLA: https://joblist.mla.org/articles/
- Report of the MLA Task Force on Ethical Conduct in Graduate Education (2020)
- Report of the MLA Task Force on Doctoral Study in Modern Language and Literature (2014)
- Additional MLA Surveys, Guidelines, and Reports