One of the Global Arts + Humanities’ core goals is to deepen student engagement in the integrated arts and humanities through professional development opportunities. Through the Imagined Futures Initiative — under the directorship of Professor Danielle Fosler-Lussier (Music) — GAH creates spaces hospitable to cross-disciplinary collaboration and career diversity. 

Imagined Futures’ focus on graduate students’ transition to post-degree work might be thought of as a form of hospitality. Cross-disciplinary research exchange is itself a hospitable epistemological endeavor. Hospitality in the context of graduate professional development might be viewed as an enactment of related core principles, bridging humanistic methods and practices with diverse careers, creating an ethos of critical humility across professions, and cultivating spaces of ethical welcome. 

The Imagined Futures Career Allies Academy enacts transformative change by helping faculty, staff and graduate programs translate skills that prepare graduate students for diverse careers. Over eight meetings each year, department chairs, directors of graduate studies and graduate program coordinators have developed strategies that support graduate students’ transition to post-degree work. 

By connecting with alumni, participants in the Career Allies Academy learn how skills already taught in their programs are being used in practice — often in ways that cross disciplinary boundaries.

Sustainable Support

Career Allies Academy participants complete projects that highlight transferable skills within the graduate curriculum. Program outcomes include projects that change degree requirements to afford more opportunities for community-engaged projects or internships; 

increase visibility of alumni’s diverse career paths; and connect students with alumni and career advisors across the disciplines.