Podcast

Off Campus: humanities scholars in the alt-ac world.

On the one hand, the collapse of the academic job market has pushed an increasing number of humanities PhDs out of the academe. On the other hand, society has an increasing need for patient, complex, and critical reflections — a skill humanities PhDs are specifically trained in. However, it remains difficult for graduate students in the humanities to envision alternative-to-academia (“alt-ac”) careers that still value their academic training. Many departments are ill-equipped at preparing students to explore alt-ac career paths. Some even actively discourage such ventures. As a result, graduate students are often left to navigate the alt-ac world on their own, sometimes with an imposed sense of shame that, by not becoming an academic, they have somehow failed.

Off Campus is about celebrating alt-ac careers, higher education, and the humanities. Each episode features a guest who has completed substantive postgraduate education in the humanities and who currently works in an alt-ac career. By listening to their stories, this podcast aims to shed light on life beyond the academe, what scholarship can do in the broader world, as well as how graduate training in the humanities helps or fails to help us prepare for the path off campus.

Be my guest on the show!

I’m always looking for guests on the podcast. If you are or know someone who 1) have done at least 3 years of doctoral training in the humanities, 2) currently work in an alt-ac career which does not require significant retraining, and 3) may be interested in sharing your/their perspective with me, please contact me at offcampuspod@gmail.com.