Articulating the value of a humanities education

Video Series, 2022–present

Considering return on investment

▻ The Problem

There’s a common assumption that humanities degrees have a bad return on investment, that humanities degrees contribute little to a successful career. In a climate of budget cuts and government scrutiny, it’s important to articulate the return on investment for humanities programs.

▻ The Solution

I developed an annual video series for the Cogut Institute for the Humanities at Brown University, featuring current and past student fellows and affiliated faculty describing, in their own words, the impact of the institute’s courses and events on their work and career trajectories.

Leveraging qualitative research

▻ The Challenge

The impact of the Cogut Institute isn’t easily quantifiable, alas. The institute organizes interdisciplinary courses and a variety of events. We can track enrollment and attendance, of course, but these numbers don’t communicate much apart from constituent engagement.

To assess the institute’s impact, I knew that qualitative research in the form of interviews was the way to go. I also knew that video was the best medium for reaching a wider audience. Otherwise, I entered the project with no preconceived notion of what the final product might look like.

▻ My Role

I planned the video series, hired videographers to manage the recording, conducted the interviews, and edited the videos, seeking regular input from the institute’s directors.

Interviewing key stakeholders

▻ The Interview Questions

For the first year of the series, I started small, interviewing the four undergraduate fellows currently participating in the institute’s yearlong research seminar. I developed open-ended questions that would allow them to share their experience with the institute and how it had affected them:

  • How would you describe the seminar?

  • How was your experience as a listener, reader, participant, and presenter?

  • Name one thing that surprised you or that you found memorable about the seminar.

  • What will you carry with you from your time at the Cogut Institute?

▻ The Interviews

The videographers and I set up the recording space in the same room where the seminar regularly met, and I asked the interviewees to dress as they might when attending the seminar. I’d shared the questions in advance so that they could think about the sorts of things they might say.

Three of the four interviewees were able to participate in person. One had to be recorded remotely via Zoom.

Uncovering important insights

▻ The Scripts

Now that I had footage, I autocaptioned it and used the text as the basis of the editing scripts. For each interviewee, I assembled the pithiest segments of their responses to form scripts of approximately two minutes in length. As I’d hoped, themes emerged across the interviews:

  • Being in an interdisciplinary setting such as the seminar challenges a scholar’s assumptions about their work and helps them to hone it.

  • Working alongside scholars at other levels in the seminar helps undergraduates practice professionalism and gives them an important perspective of life beyond graduation.

  • Being treated as peers in the seminar helps undergraduates to feel validated and to gain confidence.

  • The seminar helps scholars at all levels to build community.

I created an additional pair of scripts that spliced material from all four interviews to articulate these themes.

I’m not an undergrad here. I’m a listener. I’m part of the conversation. My voice is heard just as equally as everyone else at the table.

— Undergraduate Fellow

▻ The Editing Process

After finalizing the scripts, I edited the footage in Adobe Premiere Pro and made finishing touches in Adobe After Effects, such as animated titles and a subtle vignette effect.

Refining the plan and gaining new insights

▻ Lessons Learned

I identified two technical improvements to the video series plan and implemented these in subsequent years:

  • Film every interview with two cameras at different angles and cut the footage between two angles, which gives the video more polish than fade transitions and add to the visual interest of the video.

  • Introduce light background music during intro and outro segments to add auditory emphasis to the titles and to the outro slide featuring the institute’s logo.

▻ Updates to the Questions

Each year, I’ve interviewed a different group of stakeholders to gain insights into the ways in which the institute impacts its constituents, and I’ve modified the list of questions. The second year of the series, I interviewed the institute’s postdoctoral fellows and added these three questions:

  • How did your experiences at the Cogut Institute impact the content or process of your research?

  • In what ways do you feel you made an impact on the Brown community during your time here?

  • In what ways do you feel your postdoc experience has prepared you for the next stage of your career?

▻ New Insights

Each year’s videos reveal different ways in which the institute impacts a scholar’s work and guides their career. Insights from interviews with postdoctoral fellows include:

  • The fellowship cultivates intellectual community across disciplines and ranks, which alleviates the isolation of scholarly work.

  • The fellowship provides scholars with the time and encouragement necessary for experimenting with new ideas.

  • The fellowship puts disciplines into dialogue, which highlights both shared interests and unique contributions.

  • The fellowship provides postdocs the opportunity to develop original courses, which extends their research interests into the classroom.

  • The fellowship facilitates networking between postdocs and faculty, which leads to career-building opportunities.

  • The fellowship prepares postdocs for a diverse working environment.

The isolation of scholarly work can really weigh upon you a lot of the time. I think this is a place where you can come with ideas at any stage of development and say, “Is this anything? Does this make any sense to you?”

— Postdoctoral Fellow

The Videos

▻ 2021–22 Video Series

Featuring undergradute fellows

▻ 2022–23 Video Series

Featuring undergradute and postdoctoral fellows

▻ 2023–24 Video Series

Featuring graduate students and faculty associated with the Doctoral Certificate in Collaborative Humanities program