The Resilient Humanities PhD
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The Resilient Humanities PhD: Scholarly Formation for the 21st Century
Developed in collaboration with the Graduate Office of Career and Life Design, The Resilient Humanities PhD: Scholarly Formation for the 21st Century is a convening of faculty leaders, graduate students, and administrators focused on strengthening the future of humanities doctoral education. The program brings together nationally recognized scholars and institutional leaders to articulate principled and practical approaches to sustaining the integrity, visibility, and vitality of the humanities in a rapidly changing higher-education landscape.
The primary goal is to advance a shared, actionable vision focused on incremental change for a more resilient humanities PhD—one that preserves the core values of humanistic scholarship while equipping doctoral students to thrive amid contemporary academic and professional challenges.
Symposium Agenda
Wednesday, November 4, The University of Texas at Austin
- Lunch, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
- Welcome, 12:30 PM - 1:00 PM
- Featured Panel Discussion,1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
- National leaders reflect on the future of humanities doctoral education
- Collaborative Design Session, 2:45 PM - 5:00 PM
- Structured working session to develop actionable ideas and frameworks
- Reception, 5:00 to 6:00 PM
- Graduate student consulting projects with community organizations, experiential learning and innovation showcase
Thursday, November 5, The University of Texas at Austin
- Hustles for Humanists: Build a Business with Purpose, 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
- Half-day seminar for humanities graduate students
- RSVP form available soon
Outcomes
- Address the need for stronger institutional support and clearer career pathways for humanities PhD students
- Foster dialogue across faculty, graduate students, and administrators about incremental yet meaningful reforms in doctoral education
- Highlight innovative models of scholarly formation, mentorship, and professional development that respond to 21st-century realities
- Generate design principles and ideas that can inform future policy, programming, and practice within and beyond UT Austin
Featured Panelists and Facilitators
Daina Berry
Michael Douglas Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts, UC Santa Barbara
Daina Ramey Berry is the Michael Douglas Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts and Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In this role, she leads one of the largest divisions on campus, encompassing 29 degree-granting programs, 473 faculty, 118 staff, and nearly 3,000 graduate and undergraduate students. Since her arrival in 2022, Dean Berry has cleared a large multi-million-dollar instructional deficit and achieved record years in fundraising, bringing the division to a healthy financial position. Prior to this role, she served as Chair of the History Department and Associate Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Berry researches, writes, and teaches about the lives of the enslaved, the long-lasting repercussions of slavery, and the history of Black women in the U.S. She is the author, co-author, and/or editor of 11 award-winning books, including A Black Women's History of the United States (Beacon, 2020), co-written with Kali Nicole Gross, and The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation (Beacon, 2017). She recently co-authored America: A Narrative History (WW Norton, 2024) and serves as co-author of three U.S. History textbooks spanning the middle school, high school, and college levels. Dr. Berry is also a frequent advisor for films and TV programs on history and serves as a consultant for museums and historical societies. Dean Berry completed her BA, MA, and PhD in African American Studies and U.S. History at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is a member of the Society for American Historians and the American Antiquarian Society.
Photo Credit.
Erica Machulak
Founder, Hikma
Erica Machulak, is a medievalist turned entrepreneur and the author of Hustles for Humanists: Build a Business with Purpose (Rutgers University Press 2025). As the Founder of Hikma, she leads a social impact startup with a mission to mobilize scholarship for the public good through consulting, capacity building, and storytelling. Over the past five years, Hikma clients have secured $12.5M+ in funding to create evidence-based resources and tools, inform policies, and craft accessible communications published by Forbes, the CBC, and other platforms. Erica has delivered training at universities around the world and through “Plan for Research Impact,” a Hikma course certified by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. Her work has been featured in Inside Higher Ed, The Journal of Electronic Publishing, and Humanities, the magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and other major publications. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (BA), the University of Oxford (MSt.), and the University of Notre Dame (PhD).
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Katina Rogers
Author of Putting the Humanities PhD to Work (Duke University 2020) & Founder of InkCap Consulting
Katina L. Rogers is an independent scholar and educational consultant who works with colleges and universities to design creative, sustainable, and equitable structures. Her scholarly work centers on higher education reform, including scholarly communication practices, professionalization, career development, public scholarship, and labor advocacy. She is the author of Unexpected Flourishing: Growth from Decay in the Mycelial University (punctum books, 2026); Presence of Absence: Meditations on the Unsayable in Writing (punctum books, 2024); and Putting the Humanities PhD to Work (Duke University Press, 2020). Her work has been featured in outlets such as the New York Times, Slate, and LA Review of Books, and more.
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Robert Townsend
Director, Humanities, Arts, and Culture Programs, American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Robert Townsend is Director of Humanities, Arts, and Culture Programs at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and co-director of the Humanities Indicators. Prior to the Academy, he spent 24 years at the American Historical Association as director of research and publications. He is the author of one book and over 200 articles on various aspects of history and the humanities.
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James Van Wyck
Assistant Dean for Professional Development, Princeton University
James M. Van Wyck is Assistant Dean for Professional Development at Princeton University. He co-edited The Reimagined PhD: Navigating 21st Century Humanities Education (Rutgers UP), and has published articles in venues including the New England Quarterly, the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. He earned his Ph.D. from Fordham University, specializing in 19th Century American Literary History. He serves on a range of boards and advisory councils including: Princeton Arts Alumni, the United Way of Greater Mercer County, the Honors College Advisory Board and the Alumni Executive Council at William Paterson University, as well as serving as a Dean’s Advisory Council Board member for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Buffalo. His work has been recognized with awards including the George W. Thorne Award from the University at Buffalo and the Donald Griffin ’23 Management Award from Princeton. He was named to the 2025 NJ Innovate100 List and was an invited participant in the Leadership Institute for a New Academy at the American Council of Learned Societies, as well as the ACLS/AHA/MLA’s Doctoral Futures national initiative. His current book project is “The PhD Changed Everything: A Cultural History of the Doctoral Degree.”
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Co-Organizers
Tanya Clement, Director of the Humanities Institute and Robert Adger Law and Thos. H. Law Centennial Endowed Professor in Humanities, UT Austin
Annie Maxfield, Director of the Graduate Office of Career and Life Design, UT Austin and ImaginePhD Lead Creator, Facilitator
Design Facilitators and Session Contributors
Casey Boyle, Associate Professor & Director of Digital Writing & Research Lab & Co-Director of Behavioral and Social Data Science, UT Austin, Design Facilitator
Nathan Langfitt, Senior Director of Career Success, UT Austin, Design Facilitator
Julie Schell, Assistant Vice Provost of Academic Technology, UT Austin, Design Facilitator