The AHA is pleased to announce the awardees of its second round of Career Diversity for Historians Departmental Grants. Each department will receive $3,000 from Career Diversity for Historians to fund a variety of activities aimed at broadening career horizons and opportunities for graduate students. The AHA received 14 applications. Our selection committee chose the five awardees based on overall merit, with special attention to diversity of geographic location, program size, proposed activities, and varying levels of past work on careers for history PhDs.

Please join us in congratulating the 2016 recipients of the Career Diversity for Historians Departmental Grants. We look forward to chronicling the activities and achievements of our departmental grant awardees in Perspectives on History and right here on AHA Today:

Georgia State University, Denise Davidson, project director, working with Michelle Brattain, department chair; Alex Cummings, associate professor; and Dylan Ruediger, doctoral candidate

GSU plans to run a series of graduate student workshops: two general sessions on career diversity, networking, and communication skills; four sessions on quantitative literacy; and a concluding discussion considering future steps. The department will also use the grant funds to organize a faculty retreat focused on implementing curricular changes to help students develop skills to market themselves for nonacademic careers.

University of Texas at El Paso, Jeffrey P. Shepherd, project director, working with Sam Brunk, department chair

UTEP will use the grant to fund workshops and internship experiences for their doctoral students, 74% of whom are students of color. Students will work extensively with mentors from various career fields to expand their skill sets and professional opportunities. These steps will contribute to UTEP’s efforts to make training in diverse career paths a central element of its PhD program in history.

University of Connecticut, Mark Healey, project director, working with Sylvia Schafer, graduate placement advisor

UConn will use the funds for three “Career Pathways” roundtable discussions: “Digital Pathways,” introducing students and faculty to practitioners of digital history; “History as Enterprise,” examining contract and consulting work; and “Public History at Multiple Scales,” exploring careers in public history. The project leaders also plan to implement a regular discussion series and formal career network and website.

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, James J. Bono, project director, working with Jonathan Dewald, director of graduate studies, and Kristin Stapleton, associate professor and director of the MA Program

UB plans to use the funds to enhance and expand department resources for students seeking nonacademic careers. The project will include a student-organized career symposium and a workshop series aimed at strengthening alumni networks and developing internship opportunities in western New York.

University of Texas at Austin, Alison Frazier, project director, working with Scott Pittman, Ogechukwu Ezekwem, Christina Villareal, and Chris Babits, current and former leaders of the History Grad Student Council; and Marilyn Lehman, graduate coordinator

UT Austin will use the grant funds to organize a one-day, student-organized conference called “Career Diversity for Humanities PhDs,” open to all liberal arts graduate students and designed to cross disciplinary lines. The event will include introductory talks by internal and off-campus career advisors, panels featuring PhDs in nonacademic careers, and breakout sessions for mentoring and networking.

If your department is interested in working to expand the career horizons and opportunities of graduate students in history, we encourage you to apply to the twin planning and implementation grants sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) aimed at addressing the needs of the next generation of humanists. The NEH specifically calls for “devising a new model of doctoral education, which can both transform the understanding of what it means to be a humanities scholar and promote the integration of the humanities in the public sphere.” The AHA is prepared to participate in proposals from our members. The anticipated due date for applications is February 2017; updated information will be available on the NEH website.

Want to hear more about Career Diversity? Visit our website.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.