Category: In the News

In the final week of March 2020, as the University of Iowa geared up to commence classes and work from home in response to the novel coronavirus, members of the Humanities for the Public Good advisory board offered some informal, of-the-moment reflections about their work as humanists during this globally anxious time. Our board members bravely shared both professional and personal thoughts to the prompts (highlighted below in bold). To protect their honesty and vulnerability in thinking through the current tensions and opportunities in the humanities, their specific responses are anonymous; instead, we employ the page break line to indicate a transition to a different member's response.

Historians & Iowa Alumni Karen Christianson, Eric Zimmer and Sylvea Hollis visit campus, speaking about their "alt-ac" work as historians across the United States.

HPG Postdoc Ashley Cheyemi McNeil interviewed Dylan Ruediger, coordinator of career diversity and institutional research at the American Historical Association, to disucss career diversity and humanities graduate education.

With the season’s first snow hanging in the air, over 30 people gathered from 15 different departments across the University of Iowa at MERGE co-working space in downtown Iowa City to learn about career diversity from humanities PhD alumni. Eight PhD alumni (seven from the University of Iowa), some of whom work beyond the academy and others who occupy a wide range of teaching positions in education, traveled to Iowa City from across the country to share their experiences and insights.

On September 13 - 14th, with support from the Mellon Foundation and the University of Iowa’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Vice President for Research, the symposium brought together scholars and higher education advocates from across the nation, including speakers from seven institutions and two national associations representing eight states.

Five Iowa humanities graduate students—Laura Brown (Philosophy), Samuel Jambrovic (Linguistics), Brady Krien (English), Jamie Ritzo (Philosophy), and Shu Wan (History)—have been accepted to the Graduate Certificate in the Engaged & Public Humanities at Georgetown University!