Professionalization Resources
Career Exploration and Professional Development Resources
- Northwestern Chicago Humanities Initiative (CHI)
- The Northwestern Chicago Humanities Initiative (CHI) enables graduate students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences to explore public-facing scholarship and careers beyond the tenure-track. Through an 8-week summer internship with an arts, culture, or community organization plus a weekly seminar, participants will explore the role of the humanities in public life through hands-on, real world practice and interdisciplinary classroom discussion. Applications open every spring.
The following are resources available through Northwestern Career Advancement (NCA) for graduate students looking to explore potential careers or gain skills beyond those offered by their programs.
- You can take classes in certificate programs, like Program Management, in the School of Professional Studies.
- Guide for Cross-School Registration for TGS students interested in taking School for Professional Studies Courses (compiled by Wiebke Bullermann, PhD student in Department of German, 11/20)
- At Northwestern Career Advancement (NCA), you can:
- Speak with career advisors, specifically Elysse Longiotti, TGS career advisor, about the job market and best strategies for career development
- Participate in trainings and seminars and find job postings through the NCA’s portal, Handshake
NCA also provides access to career exploration websites like:
- ImaginePhD
- Resource for planning and exploration of careers for humanities and social science PhDs, including planning tools; assessments of skills, interests, and values; and job resources divided into different interests
- Versatile PhD
- Resource explicitly for helping graduate students, ABDs, and PhDs prepare for careers outside the academy and includes networking, webinars, online job directories, and descriptions based on resumes and cover letters
National Public Humanities Organizations
Beyond career development at Northwestern and with professional organizations, public humanities organizations across the United States demonstrate the variety of options available to graduate students interested in the public humanities.
National Humanities Alliance (NHA)/Humanities for All
National organization for humanities work across the U.S. This article about different types of publicly engaged scholarship on the Humanities for All site, which is an offshoot of NHA, is particularly interesting.
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
NEH grants support innovative digital projects for the public, humanities initiatives on college campuses, and infrastructure projects at cultural institutions. In the public realm, they especially provide opportunities for lifelong learning and preserve and provide access to cultural and educational resources through cultural institutions like museums, archives, libraries, colleges, universities, public television, and radio stations.