Institutional Benefit

The English Department

Our department has expressed a commitment to supporting graduate students who don’t intend to pursue a tenure-track position at an R1 university. (This is especially excellent because many teaching-affiliated positions outside of the tenure track require a PhD, so this commitment addresses a gap in our department’s professional development initiatives.)

Supporting alternatives to a traditional dissertation creates a wider range of opportunities for other graduate students who want to explore teaching-oriented positions or careers outside of the academy.

UW-Madison

A Public Humanities Approach

The University, too, has expressed a commitment to alternative forms of scholarship and public engagement. (See, for instance, the range of Wisconsin graduate student projects in the Alternative Dissertation Models section of this document.)

A Project in Line with UW’s Commitment to OER

Open Educational Resources are a key priority within UW-Madison’s Educational Innovation Division. (For more information, visit this detailed account of the Open Educational Resources Initiative.)

To this end, UW has joined Unizin, a consortium of universities dedicated to supporting innovative teaching technologies. Unizin provides Pressbooks hosting for its affiliate universities.

I would love to help explore the affordances of the Pressbooks platform in my dissertation.