Program for Humanities Development
Program History
In 2005-06, an ad hoc committee of the Association of Departments of English, a project of the Modern Language Association, met to discuss building pipelines for potential faculty members from underrepresented groups. The committee's particular charge was to recommend ways of improving the pathways to and within the academy for potential African American faculty members. In December 2006, the ADE Executive Committee approved publication of the ad hoc committee's report, "Affirmative Activism: Report of the ADE Ad Hoc Committee on the Status of African American Faculty Members in English."One of the action steps that the ad hoc committee recommended was the creation of summer institutes to better prepare undergraduate students from historically underrepresented groups for graduate study in English. The concept of a summer institute set in motion two programs. One program, the Summer Institute for Literary and Cultural Studies (SILCS), is designed specifically for undergraduates interested in pursuing advanced degrees in English; it is located at Wheaton College, Massachusetts, and is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The other program, the Program for Humanities Development (PHD), is designed for undergraduates pursuing advanced degrees in any of the Humanities and is located at The Ohio State University.
Both programs owe thanks to the ADE and the ad hoc committee that recommended the creation of such programs. It is the common hope of SILCS and the PHD that our efforts will result in similar programs nationwide, as well as lead to the formation of a national consortium of programs with shared goals to diversify the professoriate in English specifically and the Humanities more broadly.
