Public Humanities Report (PHR)

6 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Very occasionally, a graduate student is already involved or employed in the engaged and public humanities and a mentored internship will not further their careers or supplement their academic knowledge as intended. In these cases, with the prior approval of the Director before they begin the report, the student may write a public humanities report (PHR) while enrolling in six academic credits. The PHR is a written document that is a blend of research (both academic and non-academic), investigation, and proposing solutions. The PHR should address a question or a problem prevalent in the engaged and public humanities and pose an extensive answer to the question or solution to the problem. The report should be, at a minimum, forty pages long with 1.5 paragraph spacing and 12-point font. Sections of the report should include: an executive summary of 1-2 pages; background; case studies; assessment; recommendations; bibliography. Graphs, charts, photos, and other illustrations may be included – with original source attribution or generated by the student’s research – but these are not required. A graduate student writing a PHR should be prepared to work one-on-one with the Director while drafting the report. It is highly recommended that a student writes a brief proposal outlining the chosen field in the engaged and public humanities and the question or problem the student has chosen to pursue. The student should expect to submit writing for review every three weeks for comments by the Director. The consultation of a public humanities leader outside of the academy is not required, but highly encouraged, particularly for approval of the final draft. In drafting the report, the student should engage in a variety of approaches to collect information: interviews with non-academic experts; collecting data from industry non-profits or non-governmental agencies; surveying public humanities leaders; researching past initiatives, events, or recommendations in the public sphere; and delving into archival or library research in the engaged and public humanities. To that end, the student can expect to be working at least 15-20 hours a week collecting and reading through information, as they write the PHR. Like the mentored internship, the graduate student should think about the PHR as a supplement and lead into the capstone project, which is a separate graduation requirement. The final draft of the PHR should be read for approval by the Director approximately 8-10 weeks after starting research and completed by the end of July of the student’s graduating year. The public humanities report will be published in PDF format on the ENPH program website.