In an effort to recruit the most talented students, the University of Colorado Boulder will fundamentally restructure the support for doctoral studies in its six literature PhD programs with the new Consortium of Doctoral Studies in Literatures and Cultures.
Students accepted into the consortium programs will be guaranteed five years of support, of which the first and fifth years offer cost-of-living stipends and are free of teaching obligations. In the intervening years they will teach a reduced load and receive a substantial stipend during their four summers on campus. Students also will be encouraged to choose mentors from outside their departments, emphasizing a more cross-disciplinary approach. In combination with advising in literature, they might seek advising in law, popular culture or media, for example. The consortium is also rethinking how the PhD in the humanities should be shaped in the coming decades. The Center for Humanities and the Arts received a coveted Next Generation PhD grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which brings 28 private and public universities together in an exchange of ideas and practices. Find out more on the new Consortium of Doctoral Studies in Literatures and Cultures here and more about the Next Generation Humanities PhD here.