Date/Time
Date(s) - 01/22/2026
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Location
4010 JFSB
Category(ies)
Discover how humanities graduates thrive in diverse careers and why applied humanities programs are reshaping perceptions of the field at this week’s Humanities Center Colloquium. Join us Thursday, January 22nd at 3:30 pm in 4010 JFSB as Scott Muir of the National Humanities Alliance shares data, models, and innovative approaches that highlight the practical value of a humanities education in today’s world. Refreshments will be served.
Title: Vast but Vague: Flipping the Script on Humanities Majors Career Prospects
Scott Muir of the National Humanities Alliance (NHA) will present data and models that illuminate the vast opportunities for applying humanities knowledge and skills across a wide variety of industries. First, he will distill takeaways from career outcome date that illustrate how humanities majors ultimately thrive once they have navigated the challenge of forging a clear path among virtually infinite possibilities. Second, he will highlight innovative applied humanities programs that make the pragmatic value of humanities knowledge and skills clearer than ever, leveraging enrollment data and student survey data to illustrate how these programs are shifting students’ perceptions of the humanities. In this way, Muir will explore the possibility that we are at an inflection point in the story of the humanities in which efforts to take the applicability question head on could achieve a decisive shift in attitudes about the value of a humanities education in the 21st century.
About our guest:
As director of education advocacy, Scott Muir leads NHA’s efforts to forward innovation humanities education to attract more students. He is the author of three major reports documenting successful initiatives: Strategies for Recruiting Students to the Humanities: A Comprehensive Resource, Expanding Access to Undergraduate Humanities Education: Models and Strategies, and, most recently and most relevant to today’s conversation, Attracting Students to the Liberal Arts Through Integrative Curricula. Meanwhile, he has created resources that debunk widespread myths about humanities majors’ job prospects and illuminate career pathways, including the podcast, What Are You Going to Do with That? Scott holds a doctorate in religious studies from Duke University and has taught at Western Carolina University.
