Next fall, G'Sell, an assistant professor in Anthropology and GWSS, will meet with two visiting scholars and two senior UI faculty members for a three-hour workshop on her book manuscript, Producing Citizens: Motherhood, Race, and Political Belonging in South Africa as part of the Obermann/OVPR Book Ends Book Completion program. 

Producing Citizens analyzes the livelihood strategies of South African mothers living in poverty across five  decades of political economic shifts. G'Sell demonstrates how the content of citizenship is  created and negotiated at the micro-political scale of interpersonal relationships.

How would mentoring change if we started with the premise that "being a professor" is only one - and an increasingly less likely - reason to undertake advanced studies in the humanities? What if we thought of mentoring as a shared responsibility for faculty, staff, fellow students, alumni, and potential community partners or employers? 

This workshop on May 17 and 18 will ask formal and informal mentors of graduate students in the humanities to take stock of the short and long term impact of the advice offered by departments, faculty members, and others. After collectively deciding what good mentoring is not, we'll explore alternatives. The workshop will offer resources and models. We'll also consider the promise of public scholarship and other experiential pedagogies that help students find meaning, commitment, and purpose on the path through their graduate studies.

The workshop will be led by Bruce Burgett, Professor and Dean of the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell, and Miriam Bartha, Director of Graduate Programs and Strategic Initiatives of the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell. The two are also the founders and directors of a certificate program in public scholarship at the University of Washington-Seattle.

This fall, a new Humanities for the Public Good Advisory Board will plunge into the first year of planning a new interdisciplinary, experiential humanities PhD for students who are pursuing advanced studies in preparation for diverse careers. With representation from 11 departments, the Graduate College, the Office of Outreach and Engagement, the Center for Teaching, the Library's Digital Scholarship & Publishing Studio, the Pentacrest Museums, and the Stanley Museum of Art, the Advisory Board will work together and in break-out groups to host alumni visits and workshops; explore exciting experiments across the country, including humanities labs and project-based learning; oversee our new internship program; and more. We'll share our progress on the HPG website and in a new newsletter edited by our HPG postdoctoral fellow and graduate fellow. Congratulations and welcome to our new Advisory Board members!

If you found the information in this newsletter regarding new events and opportunities about our Mellon-funded Humanities for the Public Good project of interest, we invite you to sign up for the #UIHPG mailing list. We'll be working closely with CLAS and the Graduate College on workshops and visiting speakers next year. Beginning fall 2019, we will share regular updates and information in a special newsletter for those who are interested in our progress and in the future of humanities graduate education nationally, and we don't want you to miss you! Sign up now!