Professional Development Lectures

This panel discussion featuring Profs. Paul Kramer, David Weintraub and William Snyder at Vanderbilt University explores how and why university-based scholars present their work to broader publics.

This 20-minute lecture at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center deals with ways historians might approach the question of public engagement: the relationship between a “public” presence and university teaching; ways to approach the question of which issues to address; and differences between a university and extra-university mode of address…

This 25-minute talk explores creativity, suggesting that it’s less about individual ability, inherent talent, and social isolation–the genius in the attic–than about the curiosity, courage and grit that one cultivates best, in oneself and others, in a wider community.

This 50-minute lecture presents some ways to approach and participate in graduate and departmental seminars, including how to prepare for them, when and how to jump in, and approaches to asking questions.

This 45-minute talk explores the basics of academic journal publishing in history: the reasons why one publishes journal articles; deciding what to submit; selecting a journal; preparing a manuscript for submission; navigating peer review; and making the best use of criticism.

This 70-minute talk to graduate students suggests ways to go about selecting a problem to work on for one’s dissertation, including tools for identifying one’s interests, questions to ask (and not ask) of a potential topic, negotiating professional pressures, the proper role of advisors and the function of the prospectus.

The 35-minute lecture presents some habits of mind useful for cultivating rich, complex, dynamic thinking in history, and the broader humanities and social sciences.

This 25-minute lecture covers the varieties of reasons and ways one reads in graduate school, and techniques and functions of note-taking.