Articulating the value of humanities education
Video Series | Brown University, 2022–present
Considering return on investment
▸ The Problem
There’s a common misapprehension that humanities degrees have a poor return on investment, that they contribute little to a successful career. In a climate of budget cuts and government scrutiny, it’s important to articulate return on investment for humanities programs.
▸ The Challenge
The impact of humanities programs isn’t easily quantifiable. 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 thus 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 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?
▸ The Interviews
I met the fellows in the same space where the seminar was held, and I brought a professional videographer to record with high-quality equipment. I sat opposite the fellows, off camera.
To make the fellows comfortable, I tried to create a conversational atmosphere, beginng with a series of improvised warm-up questions about exams, summers plans, etc. During the main part of each interview, I periodically asked follow-up questions based on their responses.
One of the fellows unfortunately wasn’t able to participate in person, but we recorded her interview via Zoom.
Assembling the videos
▸ The Scripts
I autocaptioned the footage that I’d gathered and used the captions to create a set of transcripts. For each interview transcript, I assembled the pithiest segments to form scripts of approximately two minutes in length. Themes emerged across the interviews:
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 scripts 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
▸ The Editing Process
I edited the footage in Adobe Premiere Pro to match the scripts and made a few finishing touches, such as animated titles and a sublte vignette effect, in Adobe After Effects.
Implementing refinements
▸ Lessons Learned
I identified two technical improvements for future videos and implemented these in subsequent years:
Film every interview with two cameras at different angles, which allows for more polished cuts between clips and adds visual interest.
Introduce light background music during intro and outro segments to add auditory emphasis.
▸ Updates to the Questions
Each year, I’ve interviewed a different group of stakeholders to gain insights into the many ways in which 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
Each year’s videos reveal different ways in which the institute impacts scholars’ work and guides their careers. Insights from the interviews with postdoctoral fellows include:
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