Working Group on Training and Assessment in the Humanities (2012-13)
This working group, held in the final year of the research initiative, will focus on changing criteria of assessment for new modes of work in the Humanities. As new modes of especially multi-media work have materialized in the Humanities, they have tended to be assessed on the basis of older established assessment criteria especially in the case of hiring, tenure, and merit promotions. The Working Group is intended to consider the range of new assessment criteria, their relevance and viability. The outcome will be a survey of existing initiatives around these questions, and recommendations to be made available in an easily accessible public forum inviting comments. The Working Group will include approximately 8 faculty and 2 graduate students.
Faculty Summer Research Stipends (2013)
Seven one-time research stipends of $7,000 will be awarded through a competitive process to UC faculty working on concerns related to work and the humanities. Open to researchers who have participated in the project's collaborative research groups as well as to those who are participating in the project for the first time, the goal of these funds is to enable UC faculty with existing research projects to bring them nearer to completion and to invite new scholars in to this research area. The result will be greater scholarly productivity and an influx of fresh ideas into the project's third and final year. Humanities directors on each campus, working collaboratively, will oversee the competition, select summer stipend awardees, and administer the funds.
Residential Research Group-Working Group Hybrid (2013-14)
Up to 10 faculty and graduate students will be competitively selected from across the University of California to spend one quarter (adjusted appropriately for semester-based participants) in residence at UCHRI in Irvine to participate in a special RRG focused on The Work of the Humanities/The Humanities as Work. Membership will likely be from the previous two years' Working Group membership. The Residence Research Group's output will be a set of recommendations on the impact of changing conceptions of work on what and how we teach in and across the Human Sciences. They will draw in part on the work produced by the Working Groups.
Summer Institute on Work (Summer 2013)
Bringing together UC faculty and graduate students with international scholars, the Summer Institute is one in the annual series of summer seminars hosted by UCHRI on different themes in the humanities. Participants come away having engaged intensely with others and experts in the filed on the pressing issues related to the theme, often leading to new insights and ways of thinking about the subject matter, helping faculty in their teaching and graduate students to think about their own work in transformative ways. Typically running ten days to two weeks, these events attract 180 applicants on average for approximately 50 participating slots. Instructors are experts in the field; in this case they will be drawn from UC and international faculty participating in the other programs of the research initiative on the humanities and work. The Summer Institute will broaden the range of people thinking about issues of work generally and in the academy and related to the Humanities in particular. The intensity of a two-week discussion often leads to insights and sustained work otherwise less likely achievable. The plenary sessions will be videotaped and archived, along with the recorded session discussions, on the UC Humanities Network and UCHRI sites as reference and teaching resources. This material, in turn, will be available to build on by the Residence Research Group, the Working Group, and global seminar activities to take place in the final year of the grant.
Society of Fellows Retreat (Winter 2014)
This event at Westerbeke Ranch in Calistoga will bring together faculty and graduate members of the UC President's Society of Fellows with representatives from previously funded working groups, humanities center directors, and humanities deans. The focus of the retreat will be changing conditions of work and the implications for teaching and research within the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Representatives from leading professional organizations – MLA, APA, ACLS, AAUP and others – will be invited to speak and participate in the discussions. The presentations from the retreat will be videotaped and archived on the UC Humanities Network website.
Culminating Conference: How the Humanities Work (Spring 2014)
This closing public forum will draw on UC faculty and graduate students who have participated in activities over the three years of the research initiative. Non-UC faculty working in the area also will be invited as key interlocutors. The proceedings will be videotaped, and an edited version will be aired on UCTV, the University of California satellite and cable television network reaching 8 million households in the tri-state region.