In the second installment of Connected Conversations, Rona Sheramy discusses the skills and qualities that make it possible for humanities PhDs to thrive outside the academy; the importance of having smart, curious, critical thinkers in all areas of society; and loving the work that she does as the executive director of the Association for Jewish Studies.
Rachel Wimpee has a PhD in French and French studies from New York University. A former American Council for Learned Societies Public Fellow, she is now a historian in the Research and Education division of the Rockefeller Archive Center.
By Eliza Bateman
“Social justice organizations want smart people who can work independently on long projects,” writes lawyer and PhD candidate Eliza Bateman. “People with transferable skill sets. People who can bring together a team of specialists and lead them. People who are flexible and creative, and, most of all, people who already have these skills when they arrive.”