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Meaningful Teaching and Learning in the Humanities Classroom

July 11–15, 2022

OVERVIEW SPEAKERS PARTICIPANTS Teaching Resources

Pedagogy — Visual notes by Wendi Pillars from the 2021 Virtual Graduate Student Residency.

Since 2015, the National Humanities Center has offered graduate students in humanities doctoral programs an opportunity to learn about and experience best practices in teaching and learning.

Each year, a cohort of students working in small teams creates group and individual instructional materials. Focusing on translating research into practice, students are given guidance on how to create meaningful learning experiences for any level audience in sessions led by prominent scholars, master educators, and technology experts. Most importantly, the design of the residency requires direct and collegial work among students from different universities and disciplines, creating opportunities to engage with a much broader network of humanities professionals.

Program Overview

This five-day, virtual residency will model best practices for undergraduate teaching in the humanities classroom. Our focus will be on effective instructional strategies that can be modified for an in-person, a virtual, or a hybrid classroom. Graduate student cohorts will interact and learn from university professionals, and participants will also have opportunities to work with each other through interactive sessions and projects. The program will not simply be a series of Zoom meetings, although there will be live events scheduled. Instead, we will construct an online learning environment that features design principles students can directly apply to their teaching experiences specifically for the humanities classroom.
Topics will include:

Open Education Resources (OER)
Online Course Design and Instruction
How to Build Community and Relationships

Interactive Teaching Technologies
Student Assessments
Class Evaluations

The Graduate Student Summer Residency program is also designed to address issues for early career scholars and educators to consider in life after the PhD program. Topics will include:

Understanding Copyright in Publication and Instruction
Finding Support for Work-Life Balance
Job Market to First Job

Program Goals

Students at work in the Commons The Graduate Student Residency Program focuses each year on a specific pedagogical theme paired with an emerging instructional technology tool. Participants are also introduced to learning science theory to better inform their instructional design and lesson writing.

Throughout the program, participants will work in cross-university and interdisciplinary teams to create instructional materials for their teaching portfolio by applying these skills. Sessions will be designed and led by established scholars in the humanities who can model innovative uses of instructional technology in their research and their teaching. Workshops will provide participants with hands-on experience in connecting their own research to practice.

The primary goals for this program include:

Working with a diverse team to identify and map solutions to an instructional challenge
Identifying a compelling topic from research and scholarship to develop instructional materials
Training participants on the development of classroom-ready materials for the university classroom, including familiarizing them with the most recent research on learning sciences
Providing structured feedback on the practice and implementation of writing for a broader audience rather than solely an academic one

Writing, revising, and publishing classroom-ready lessons in the Center’s digital repository. These materials will be freely and openly disseminated to the full network of NHC educators. Student authors will receive full citation.
Developing skills that are marketable and valuable in the job search
Bolstering participants’ CVs through selection to and completion of the National Humanities Center’s Graduate Student Residency Program

More than simply developing a strong pedagogical understanding, this program will also provide a broader introduction to the Center and its work in humanities education and outreach. These activities will aim to:

Integrate the work of the internship to provide more access to ongoing Center initiatives and workplace culture
Identify a theme with strong cross-disciplinary opportunities that encourages advocacy and outreach at the school, university, and national level

Application Process

Students are nominated into the program by their home institution. The National Humanities Center will accept up to ten (10) students per supporting institution. NHC staff work with university representatives to develop recruiting materials, including an orientation meeting with faculty and students. The program quickly reaches capacity so participating institutions are encouraged to indicate their interest and submit applications as soon as the application portal opens.

Once selected, students will work with NHC staff to complete all required paperwork and prepare for the residency program. Participants will also participate in a short welcome orientation video conference and receive a detailed syllabus.

The tuition cost per participant is $750 and covers all programming for the NHC Graduate Student Residency Program.

For more information, contact Andy Mink, Vice President for Education Programs.

Next Steps and Timeline

Interested university representatives should complete this commitment form to reserve up to ten spots in the program.
April 29, 2022: University partners submit the names of nominees for participation in the program.