The Imagined Futures is an initiative of the Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme led by Faculty Director Danielle Fosler-Lussier (Music)

Today’s graduate alumni are choosing many different career pathways. They need career allies to broaden the definition of career success, help them imagine paths forward and prepare them to use their education in many kinds of meaningful work. GAHDT's Imagined Futures: Graduate Professional Development Initiative (IF) is excited to announce the launch of its Career Allies Academy. This academy is designed for chairs and directors, directors of graduate studies and graduate program coordinators to build skills in:

• Guiding graduate students’ career exploration.
• Teaching students to translate skills to seek jobs beyond the professoriate.
• Integrating career diversity across the breadth of graduate programming.

2025-26 Career Allies Academy Cohort

• Mark Anthony Arceno, Comparative Studies (arceno.1)
• Katra Byram, Germanic Languages and Literatures (byram.4)
• Alison Crocetta, Art (crocetta.1)
• Kathleen Griffin, English (griffin.328)
• Lauren Pace, Arts Administration, Education, and Policy (pace.162)
• Sarah Palazzo, Anthropology (palazzo.66)
• Julia Papke, Linguistics (papke.5)
• Jacob Risinger, English (risinger.13)
• Rachel Sanabria, Spanish and Portuguese (sanabria.3)
• Gabrielle Stephens, History of Art (stephens.182)

Career Allies Academy Curriculum

Over the course of eight two-hour meetings across the academic year, cohort members will learn about:

• Mentoring students for a variety of careers.
• Integrating career exploration and preparation into each phase of graduate education.
• Building broadly valued transferable skills into existing graduate courses.
• Utilizing data to design and/or revise graduate program content and practices.
• Small changes that have a big impact on students’ professional trajectories.

Upon completion of the Career Allies Academy, each participant will have developed a plan for sustainable integration of graduate student career development in their own program. Participants may apply for additional funding to support a project that advances the mission of Imagined Futures within or across academic units.