Curricular Reform Resources

"reorienting doctoral education to a student-centered educational environment ... requires rethinking the core doctoral curriculum and requirements" – AAU PhD Education Initiative

AHA Career Diversity: sample syllabi, workshop outlines etc. for Developing Skills in Communication and Collaboration; Quantitative and Digital Literacy; Intellectual Self-Confidence [AHA] and AHA Career Diversity – Five Skills

Balleisen, E. and M. Lamonaca Wisdom, Reimagining the Humanities PhD: A Guide for Phd Programs and Faculty (PDF) (2019), esp. pp. 3-6  ("PhD Program Coursework, the Grad Seminar, and the Humanities Lab)

Canadian Association for Graduate Studies, "Report of the CAGS Task Force on the Dissertation: Purpose, Content, Structure, Assessment (PDF)"

Cassuto, L., "Doctoral Training Should Include an Internship," Chronicle of Higher Education  (August 2020)

Cassuto, L., "How Do We Teach Graduate Students in the Humanities to Collaborate?Chronicle of Higher Education  (December 2021)

Cassuto, L., The Graduate School Mess: What Caused it and How to Fix it. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015. (Especially chapters 2-3). 

Cassuto, L. and R. Weisbuch, The New PhD: How to Build a Better Graduate Education. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021.

Loss, C. P. / CGS, "Future of the Dissertation (PDF)"

MLA, Faculty Toolkit Module 4: "Starting the Conversation with the Faculty and Administration (PDF)," Faculty Toolkit Module 5: "Changing Departmental Culture through Curriculum (PDF)," and "Task Force on Doctoral Studies in Modern Language and Literature" executive summary (PDF) 

Next-Generation Dissertations: New Approaches to Humanities Scholarship (Syracuse University): examples, planning, evaluation, resources, and more; and Innovative Dissertations: Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences, 1999–2021.

Rogers, K., Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Thriving in and beyond the Classroom. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020.

Smith, S., Manifesto for the Humanities: Transforming Doctoral Education in Good Enough Times. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2015, esp. pp. 113-72.

UNC Chapel Hill, Next Gen White Paper, "Rethinking the Traditional Dissertation (PDF)"

Yale University, "Report of the Humanities Doctoral Education Advisory Working Group (PDF)"