Georgetown Named Partner Institution in MLA “Connected Academics” Project

December 16, 2014—The Modern Language Association (MLA) has received generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to undertake a major project, Connected Academics: Preparing Doctoral Students of Language and Literature for a Variety of Careers. The project will run through August 2019 and will support initiatives aimed at demonstrating how doctoral education can develop students’ capacities to bring the expertise they acquire in advanced humanistic study to a wide range of fulfilling, secure, and well-compensated professional situations.

Connected Academics will help prepare doctoral students—already well trained for postsecondary faculty positions—to use their humanistic training in a broader range of occupations than doctoral programs have, up to now, characteristically acknowledged and honored.

The project will support pilot programs at three partner institutions: Georgetown, Arizona State University, and the University of California Humanities Research Institute. These institutions will implement recommendations of the MLA Task Force on Doctoral Study to support career diversity for language and literature doctoral students and graduates. The MLA will also host annual institutes with the project partners, bringing participants together to meet with outside experts, assess needs, test models, and develop concrete plans that will effect tangible, systemic change in doctoral education.

Kathryn Temple, Chair and Associate Professor of English, authored the Georgetown portion of the grant proposal and will be the principal investigator assigned to the grant.

Read more about Connected Academics, and its wide range of initiatives for language and literature doctoral students, in the full press release.