Career Diversity

In April 2017, the department hosted a symposium entitled Humanities Beyond the Academy, funded with a grant from the American Historical Association that was secured through the hard work of Director of Graduate Studies Kristin Stapleton and PhD candidate David Strittmatter. The symposium featured speakers such as Dr. Franklin Odo and Dr. Phillip Payne, who have blended public service and academic scholarship into rewarding careers, as well as roundtables featuring numerous UB alumni who are using their humanities degrees outside of the collegiate setting. The symposium also brought together scholars and members of the public with representatives of several local public humanities institutions for a career and internship fair.

In May 2017, the American Historical Association announced that the Department of History was among 36 departments chosen for inclusion in their AHA Career Diversity Faculty Institutes. Director of Graduate Studies Kristin Stapleton, Director of the Master’s Program Gail Radford, and Chair of the Department Victoria Wolcott represented the department in these institutes, where they explored the issue of career diversity for historians and considered potential implications for history education.

In March 2018, the Department of History won a competitive Career Diversity Implementation Grant from the American Historical Association. This grant allows the department to support a Career Diversity fellow, a PhD candidate who collaborates with a faculty team to better prepare History PhDs for careers inside and beyond the academy. The faculty team and fellow work together to rethink the structure and purpose of their doctoral program by developing workshops, lectures, and networking events; creating graduate level internships; and instituting curricular changes designed to prepare students to teach in diverse environments, produce important historical scholarship, and succeed in multiple career paths.