THE HUMANITIES AT WORK
WHAT WAS ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT WORKING HERE, AND WHY? I enjoyed interviewing the Institute’s fellows for a series called What I’m Reading This Week. During the interview process I had the opportunity to pick the brains of fellows involved in and pursuing amazing projects within the humanities. I learned a lot from the experience as I was exposed to different topics that I would have never discovered independently, from a project examining the expansion of a market of reverse osmosis drinking water after Haiti’s cholera epidemic, to one on southwest China and how specific individuals lives are articulated by the art they use.
The Humanities at Work is a new series that features the variety of careers pursued by Humanities PhDs. Organized as a series of conversations, these one-hour sessions included an informational interview in which the invited guest traced their trajectory, described the extent to which graduate education in the humanities prepared them for their current work, identified things they wish they’d known or explored as a graduate student, and explained the qualifications their organization would seek in an applicant. We also asked our guests to describe how the humanities matter in the work they do. The second half of the hour was devoted to questions from the audience.
NOW THAT THE SEMESTER, AND YOUR INTERNSHIP, HAVE WRAPPED UP, HOW DO YOU PLAN TO SPEND THE SUMMER BEFORE YOUR JUNIOR YEAR? I will be interning at Chewy, an online retail company of pet foods and other pet-related products, as a business analyst. Besides work, I hope to read, play a lot of tennis and soccer, and go camping. I’m looking forward to making the most of my summer, enjoying the outdoors as much as possible, and spending time with my family!
PARTICIPANTS: WHITNEY PEOPLES (PhD, women’s, gender, & sexuality studies, Emory University), director in educational development & assessment services and coordinator of DEI initiatives & critical race pedagogies at the U-M Center for Research on Learning and Teaching.
THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO ANSWER MY QUESTIONS, NATE. TO END THE INTERVIEW, I’D LIKE TO ASK YOU THE SAME FINAL QUESTION YOU POSED TO THE FELLOWS YOU INTERVIEWED. IF YOU WERE STRANDED ON A DESERTED ISLAND, WHAT WOULD BE THE ONE BOOK YOU WOULD WANT TO HAVE WITH YOU AND WHY?
CASSIE MILLER (PhD, history, Carnegie Mellon University), senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project.
The one book I would want to have with me is Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. The book is a series of personal writings by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius written as a private note to himself examining the ideas on Stoic philosophy, which he used as a tool for self-improvement and guidance. It is written in a way that is very easy to read and digest but at the same time provides wisdom as old as time that is still applicable today.
ROBERT BLECHER (PhD, Middle East history, Stanford University), chief strategy officer at the International Crisis Group.
–Stephanie Harrell, marketing and communications manager 25
