Conference highlights career opportunities for doctoral students in the humanities

Harpur College recently hosted its first-ever careers conference for doctoral students in the humanities, a one-day event designed to help current graduate students imagine and prepare for a diverse range of professional outcomes.

“Dr. Who?: A Careers Conference for Professional Humanists” took place April 22 in the University Union and brought together dozens of alumni, faculty, students and staff. The event featured workshops, panel discussions, networking events and a keynote talk from former Harpur College Interim Dean Sidonie Smith, now director of the Institute for the Humanities and Mary Croushore Professor of the Humanities at the University of Michigan.

“Students elect into graduate degree programs due to their insatiable desire to learn about subject matter, but often do not consider, or are not aware of, the numerous career possibilities available to them,” Interim Dean Terence Deak said. “Harpur College is deeply committed to helping its doctoral students explore a diverse range of career opportunities.”

The conference, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, was organized by Florenz Plassmann, associate dean for graduate studies and research; Kevin Boettcher, research development specialist for Harpur College; and Courtney Ignarri, administrative coordinator of graduate affairs.

Because the number of open faculty positions in the humanities is fairly limited, doctoral students in Harpur’s humanities departments are casting their nets fairly wide. The goal of the grant was to engage faculty, students and alumni in conversations to identify opportunities that will help doctoral students succeed.

“This seemed to be a great way to get alumni back to campus,” Plassmann said. “Because we invited a lot of alumni who graduated from our (doctoral) programs who have jobs outside the academy, we were able to show students former peers who have made the successful transition to non-academic jobs. There is a life beyond the academy.”

Harpur College received the grant in the summer of 2016 and spent the fall semester surveying current doctoral students about career expectations and how open faculty members are about discussing non-academic careers.

“It was helpful,” Boettcher said of the survey. “It gave us an idea of what students want, need and what they believe the college should do.”

The conference was then designed in response to the survey, Boettcher said.

“One of the biggest obstacles is that faculty members are good at being faculty members, but they tend not to have a lot of experience in other fields and doing other kinds of work,” he said. “The conference was a way to bring in expertise from different perspectives to help students imagine different possibilities.”

Nineteen speakers, including a dozen alumni, participated in the conference. Thirty-eight students and 12 faculty members joined them.

For Boettcher, one of the conference’s high points was an employer panel that featured speakers who had hired doctoral students for positions both within and beyond the academy.

“They talked about what they look for in employees – skills such as the ability to be flexible and to be able to think on your feet,” he said. “Students are hungry for that kind of insider perspective, and the panelists were great.”

Plassmann pointed to a “career circulator” at the end of the day in which Binghamton doctoral alumni met with current students.

“I was concerned that only a few students would come, but we actually ran 10 minutes over,” he said. “The students and alumni were very engaged and there were so many conversations that we didn’t feel like stopping on time. If people are still there at the end and the event runs over, it’s a sign you’re not doing things totally wrong!”

Plassmann and Boettcher said they hope the conference can be repeated in the future, perhaps for Harpur students in the sciences and social sciences. Boettcher added the number of faculty members involved in the conference could allow departments to take on some of the work, as well.

“It was encouraging to see the number of faculty members there from history, art history, English and comparative literature who can pick this up and do smaller versions of the event in their departments,” he said.

Besides providing career advice, the conference helped humanities students understand that what they are learning today will prove beneficial tomorrow, Plassmann said.

“For many PhD students, it’s hard to know what kind of skills they have acquired in their PhD program beyond writing a dissertation,” he said. “How do their activities at Binghamton translate to a job outside the academy? Going through a PhD program teaches you how to gather information, write well and how to explain complex relationships to others. These are skills valuable in a wide range of careers.”