How can candidates best prepare themselves to win jobs at undergraduate liberal arts colleges?
Job candidates come out of programs in research universities, but many academic jobs are at smaller institutions. It can be hard to know how to translate your experience for the liberal arts setting, and even harder to know how liberal arts structures, cultures and values will shape the interview process. Professor Thomas offers a two-day workshop, supplementing the professionalization prep offered by graduate programs. She focuses on the liberal arts context, but students have found her advice invaluable for the full range of job opportunities.
Dr. Kate Thomas
Kate Thomas is the K. Laurence Stapleton Professor of English at Bryn Mawr College. She chaired the Department of Literatures in English for seven years and chaired the college’s Committee on Appointments. She has run multiple national searches in English and has participated in many more hires across the humanities.
She leads workshops in graduate programs across the country, preparing students for the job market.
Her workshop gives graduate students a realist and pragmatic guide to application materials, interviews and campus visits, from the perspective of someone who has “seen it all.”
Workshops
Since 2018, Dr. Kate Thomas has run professionalization workshops for graduate students in the humanities and social sciences at Brown, Harvard, UPenn, Penn State, Vanderbilt, the University of Mississippi, the University of San Diego, and other institutions and foundations.
Professor Thomas offers a two-day workshop aimed at graduate students who are preparing to go on the job market. By definition, well-qualified job candidates come out of programs in research universities, but not all tenure track positions are in those familiar settings. How can candidates best prepare themselves to win jobs at undergraduate liberal arts colleges? It can be hard to know how to translate your experience for the smaller liberal arts setting, and even harder to know how liberal arts structures, cultures and values will shape the interview process.
THE SCHEDULE
On the first day, Professor Thomas leads an interactive seminar for 12 to 50 students, combining discussion and practical exercises focused on applications, interviews, and campus visits.
On the evening of the first day and throughout the second day, Professor Thomas offers individual half-hour consultations for up to 25 students. She reviews application materials and works through individualized strategies, tailored to specific fields and candidate profiles. She talks through a range of career trajectories, helping participants put the seminar’s principles into practice.
past Workshops at...
The one-on-one session that I had with her was also absolutely invaluable. Her directed feedback was honest and generative. I am so glad that I was able to take advantage of this opportunity!
The combination of real-life information from someone who has directed many searches at a SLAC, with individual attention to my application materials, was invaluable. I feel like I’m much better prepared for every aspect of the job market – and not only for SLAC applications and interviews, but across the board.
Attribution?
Professor Thomas made the whole miserable prospect of going on the job market seem possible and even rational. She broke it down into bite-size chunks – the letters of rec, the teaching statement, the research statement, even how to organize the letter and whom to address. The initial interview, both if it’s in-person or online, and the campus visit. She even gave time to the first year on the job. I feel like I have a vision of the immediate future for the first time, and so much better prepared for it!
The one-on-one session that I had with her was also absolutely invaluable. Her directed feedback was honest and generative. I am so glad that I was able to take advantage of this opportunity!
This was absolutely the best professionalization experience I've had at Brown so far. We all learned so much about the process and built confidence through the exercises Prof. Thomas brought in--it's not uncommon for me to come out of professionalization workshops a little more overwhelmed than when I entered, but I left feeling optimistic.
It was very interesting hearing about the peculiarities of the Liberal Arts College. I didn’t attend one, and I had a somewhat skewed understanding of what they are looking for. Kate gave me so much more confidence about those applications than I had before. I think a lot of what she talked about will help me in all my applications, to be honest.