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Over the past decade or more, the National Endowment for the Humanities, other funders, disciplinary societies, and universities have undertaken projects to promote career diversity for doctoral degree recipients in the field.1  While humanities Ph.D.’s can be found in virtually every occupational sector, the data indicate that they are much more likely than recipients in other fields to be employed as postsecondary teachers.

Endnotes

  • 1See, for instance, the American Historical Association (https://www.historians.org/jobs-and-professional-development/career-diversity-for-historians/about-career-diversity) and the Modern Languages Association (https://connect.mla.hcommons.org/). For earlier discussions of career diversity initiatives, see Council of Graduate Schools, “Promising Practices in Humanities Ph.D. Professional Development,” https://www.utep.edu/graduate/_Files/docs/NEH_NextGen_LessonsLearned.pdf, accessed 9/20/2022; Rosemary Feal, “Expanding Career Horizons: Possibilities, Pitfalls,” MLA Commons, April 16, 2014, https://execdirector.mla.hcommons.org/2014/04/16/expanding-career-horizons-possibilities-pitfalls/, accessed 9/20/2022; and Emily Swafford, “Career Diversity for Historians Year in Review,” Perspectives on History, November 2015, https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/november-2015/career-diversity-for-historians-2015-year-in-review, accessed 9/20/2022.
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* Employed at any time (full- or part-time) in the previous five years.
**See the provided crosswalk for information regarding the occupations included in this category.
† Excludes holders of the D.D.S., D.V.M., M.D., and other nonresearch degrees.

Source: National Science Foundation, 2019 National Survey of College Graduates. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

Since the humanities were dropped from the biennial Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR) in 1995, the National Science Foundation’s National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) is the only source of nationally representative data on the occupations and earnings of humanities Ph.D.’s. Conducted every two years, the NSCG gathers detailed education, occupation, and earnings information from a sample of individuals drawn from the larger pool of all those people identified via the American Community Survey (ACS) as holders of a baccalaureate degree. The foundation makes NSCG data available to researchers and the general public via downloadable data files and its online data analysis tool, SESTAT. Given the size of the NSCG sample, reliable estimates are available only for broad academic fields.

For the NSCG disciplinary categories included in each of the field-of-degree categories employed by the Humanities Indicators, see the provided crosswalk, which also indicates the types of jobs that are included in each of the broad occupational categories used for this analysis.

These occupation-related indicators are based on NSCG data, but similar items included in the Humanities Indicators rely on data from the ACS. Due to marked differences in how NSCG and ACS classify academic fields and occupations, the contents of the field-of-degree and occupational categories used for this indicator are not identical to those used for the ACS-based Indicators III-03a, 03b, and 05b. (For more information on the contents of the categories used for the ACS analysis, see the pertinent crosswalk.)

Another key difference between these indicators and the ACS-based occupation-related indicators is that the Ph.D. holders considered here are those whose doctoral degree was in the humanities, irrespective of the field of their undergraduate and any master’s degree. The ACS does not collect data about the fields in which advanced degrees were earned. The ACS-based indicators thus describe the occupational distribution of undergraduate humanities majors who went on to pursue an advanced degree, regardless of the field of that degree.

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* Employed at any time (full- or part-time) in the previous five years. Excludes holders of the D.D.S., D.V.M., M.D., and other nonresearch degrees.
** See the provided crosswalk for information regarding the occupations included in this category.

Source: National Science Foundation, 2019 National Survey of College Graduates. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’
Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

 

Since the humanities were dropped from the biennial Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR) in 1995, the National Science Foundation’s National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) is the only source of nationally representative data on the occupations and earnings of humanities Ph.D.’s. Conducted every two years, the NSCG gathers detailed education, occupation, and earnings information from a sample of individuals drawn from the larger pool of all those people identified via the American Community Survey (ACS) as holders of a baccalaureate degree. The foundation makes NSCG data available to researchers and the general public via downloadable data files and its online data analysis tool, SESTAT. Given the size of the NSCG sample, reliable estimates are available only for broad academic fields.

For the NSCG disciplinary categories included in each of the field-of-degree categories employed by the Humanities Indicators, see the provided crosswalk, which also indicates the types of jobs that are included in each of the broad occupational categories used for this analysis.

These occupation-related indicators are based on NSCG data, but similar items included in the Humanities Indicators rely on data from the ACS. Due to marked differences in how NSCG and ACS classify academic fields and occupations, the contents of the field-of-degree and occupational categories used for this indicator are not identical to those used for the ACS-based Indicators III-03a, 03b, and 05b. (For more information on the contents of the categories used for the ACS analysis, see the pertinent crosswalk.)

Another key difference between these indicators and the ACS-based occupation-related indicators is that the Ph.D. holders considered here are those whose doctoral degree was in the humanities, irrespective of the field of their undergraduate and any master’s degree. The ACS does not collect data about the fields in which advanced degrees were earned. The ACS-based indicators thus describe the occupational distribution of undergraduate humanities majors who went on to pursue an advanced degree, regardless of the field of that degree.

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