Articulating the value of humanities education
Video Series | Brown University, 2022–present
Considering return on investment
▸ The Problem
It’s commonly assumed that humanities degrees have a poor return on investment. Return on investment is a severely limited metric for assessing the value of higher education, but in a time of budget cuts and general scrutiny, it’s important to articulate the impact of humanities programs.
▸ The Challenge
The impact of humanities programs isn’t easily quantifiable, alas. We can track course enrollments and event attendance, but these numbers account only for engagement, telling us nothing about what constituents actually take away. Qualitative research is a necessity.
▸ The Solution
I developed an annual video series for the Cogut Institute for the Humanities at Brown University, featuring current and past fellows and affiliated faculty describing, in their own words, the impact of the institute’s programs on their research, teaching, and career trajectories.
Interviewing key stakeholders
▸ The Questions
For the first year of the video series, I interviewed the four undergraduate fellows currently participating in the institute’s yearlong research seminar. I developed open-ended questions that would prompt them to share their experience as authentically as possible:
How would you describe the seminar?
How was your experience as a listener, reader, participant, and presenter?
Name one thing that surprised you or that you found memorable about the seminar.
What will you carry with you from your time at the Cogut Institute?
Assembling the videos
▸ The Scripts
For each interview, I selected the pithiest segments to splice together into a video approximately two minutes in length. Themes emerged across the four videos:
Being in an interdisciplinary setting such as the seminar challenges a scholar’s assumptions and helps them to hone their work.
Working alongside scholars at other levels helps undergraduates practice professionalism and gives them an important perspective on life beyond graduation.
Being treated as peers helps undergraduates to feel validated and to gain confidence.
An interdisciplinary setting such as the seminar helps scholars to build community.
I created another pair of videos splicing together material from all four interviews to articulate these themes.
I’m not an undergrad here. I’m a listener. I’m part of the conversation. My voice is heard just as equally as everyone else at the table.
— Undergraduate Fellow
Implementing refinements
▸ Updates to the Questions
Each year, I’ve interviewed a different group of stakeholders to learn more about how the institute impacts its constituents, and I’ve modified the list of questions accordingly. The second year, I interviewed postdoctoral fellows, adding these questions:
How did your experiences at the Cogut Institute impact the content or process of your research?
In what ways do you feel you made an impact on the Brown community during your time here?
In what ways do you feel your postdoc experience has prepared you for the next stage of your career?
▸ New Insights
The interviews with postdoctoral fellows revealed a number of important points that hadn’t come up during my previous intereviews with the undergraduates:
The fellowship cultivates intellectual community across disciplines and ranks, which alleviates the isolation of scholarly work.
The fellowship provides scholars with the time and encouragement necessary for experimenting with new ideas.
The fellowship puts disciplines into dialogue, which highlights both shared interests and unique contributions.
The fellowship provides postdocs with the opportunity to develop original courses, which extends their research interests into the classroom.
The fellowship facilitates networking between postdocs and faculty, which leads to career-building opportunities.
The fellowship prepares postdocs for a diverse working environment.
The isolation of scholarly work can really weigh upon you a lot of the time. I think this is a place where you can come with ideas at any stage of development and say, “Is this anything? Does this make any sense to you?”
— Postdoctoral Fellow