$1.6-Million Grant Will Better Prepare History Ph.D.’s for Range of Careers

By Vimal Patel. The American Historical Association and four universities will split a $1.6-million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation aimed at broadening the career paths of history Ph.D.’s, officials announced on Thursday. The grant comes as graduate students in history and across the humanities face a bleak job market and as graduate programs are under pressure to improve their students’ employment prospects. The association wrote in its 2012 jobs report that less than 43 percent of new recipients of history Ph.D.’s in 2011 reported definite employment at the time they graduated, the lowest level in at least four decades. The 2013 report showed a slight increase, to 44 percent, in the proportion of new graduates reporting definite employment. Read more...