SCI is undertaking three related strands of activity to explore and test new programs for the education of scholars and scholarly communication professionals. These are designed to survey needs and opportunities, develop and articulate new models, and foster the growth of collaborative networks among organizations, institutions, and sectors of the academy with a stake in graduate and professional methodological training in the humanities.

First, SCI has administered a broad survey of humanities-trained respondents who self-identify as working in alternative academic careers—as well as their employers—to illuminate perceived gaps in graduate-level preparation. The data collection period of the survey is now closed, but more information is available at the links below. The data and a full report will be published in due course.

• Read the launch announcement
• View or contribute to a public database that complements the study
• Results, when available, will be announced here and posted at #alt-academy. A preliminary report is available here.

Concurrently, working with the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) and centerNet, an international consortium of digital humanities labs and centers, we are hosting a number of meetings to facilitate conversation on curricular change at the graduate level and the roles of scholarly societies, libraries, centers, and professional schools in driving that change.

• Our first meeting took place in October 2012 at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities; the meeting report and other materials can be found here.
• Our second meeting took place in March 2013 at the University of Washington’s Simpson Center for the Humanities. A report, participant list, and other resources from the meeting are available here.
• The steering group will meet in the summer of 2013 to refine ideas for joint CHCI-centerNet pilot projects.

Finally, we have developed the Praxis Network, a partnership of allied but differently-inflected initiatives that are all engaged in rethinking pedagogy and campus partnerships in relation to the digital. We are also continually refining and documenting the Praxis Program and Graduate Fellows models of methodological training and early-career research support offered by the UVa Library Scholars’ Lab.

More information will be available here as SCI’s work in this area progresses.