What should doctoral training in the humanities and humanistic social sciences look like in the 21st century? This question has prompted a steady stream of foundation inquiries over the past two decades, including "The Graduate Education Initiative" (Mellon Foundation), "The Responsive Ph.D." (Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship…

The crisis in humanities graduate education is coming to an end. But academic jobs are still few and far between, and graduate education remains on shaky ground both institutionally and socially. Nevertheless, two generations of "crisis thinking" are finally giving way to the idea that graduate education is not in a crisis. Instead, it…

The author argues that evaluators who are comfortable with the interpretation of competing values--an ability that can be fostered by exposure to the humanities--might be able to contribute significant advances toward finding a better balance of methodologies in an ever-more-ambiguous world. This argument is made by describing a…

Graduate education in the humanities is in crisis. Every aspect, from the most specific details of the curriculum to the broadest questions about its purpose, is in crisis. It is a seamless garment of crisis: If one pulls on any one thread, the entire thing unravels. It is therefore exceptionally difficult to discuss any one aspect of graduate…

Despite the size and growth of political science and sociology relative to other disciplines, political science and sociology graduate students have received a declining share of funding for dissertation field research in recent years. Specifically, political science and sociology students are losing out to competitive applicants from…

Dismissed as a passive behavior that comes naturally, listening is, in fact, a complex and learned activity that can be perfected. Like reading, writing, and speaking, listening as a practical activity is critical for success in college life and beyond. But while rhetoric as the art of speaking has been a basic course in higher education for…

Doctoral programs in the humanities and related social sciences are characterized by high attrition and long times to degree. In 1991 the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation launched the Graduate Education Initiative (GEI) to improve the quality of graduate programs and in turn reduce attrition and shorten time-to-degree. Over a 10-year period, the…

Discusses the use of an instructional morphological parser (IMP) in the teaching of courses in theoretical and computational morphology. Provides an overview of computational morphology. Outlines the two courses and speculates on computational and linguistic concepts that students learned. Examines problems encountered in teaching about recursion.…

Describes a seminar program at the University of Maryland Dental School, which uses books, short stories, and films that integrate human values into dental education, specifically in pediatric dentistry, for residents, clerks, and faculty. Results of initial evaluation and changes in the program over time are detailed. (DB)

The central feature of doctoral training in the humanities, according to this author, must remain the organization of curricula to support the mastery of disciplines, the development of rich conceptual frameworks, and a demonstrable attainment of research skills. The work of transmitting these capacities is only partially done by the curriculum. A…

A human society that aspires to more than survival must search continuously for new knowledge; we are all the beneficiaries of the scholar's insatiable desire to know. Graduate study must be nurtured, and cannot ever be the sole preoccupation of academe. Today the crucial balance of things and humans is threatened by the erosion of support for and…

Papers in this volume are the first working papers produced by the Council of Ontario Universities. Issue 1, "The Role and State of Ontario Graduate Education" by Dennis Forcese, advocates the reinforcement of graduate education in Ontario institutions to maintain the overall quality of the institutions and to secure the future. The paper outlines…

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation combined its concern that few top flight scholars are choosing the humanities for careers and its awareness of the current oversupply of humanities faculty to create a $24 million fellowship program to direct talented graduate students into English and comparative literature, American studies, history, classics,…

Discusses how academic disciplines are integral to supporting the preparation of future faculty as a natural part of graduate department responsibilities. Explores the role of disciplines within Preparing Future Faculty programs. (EV)

This study was undertaken as a report on a relatively new kind of graduate program. It is intended to present the characteristics of existing general education programs in the humanities for comparison and appraisal. Since this study deals with a relatively new and still experimental field, it should be regarded as a status report, or perhaps even…