Research Fellow, Humanities Workforce

The National Humanities Alliance (NHA) is a nationwide coalition of organizations advocating for the humanities on campuses, in communities, and on Capitol Hill. Founded in 1981, NHA is supported by over 250 member organizations, including: colleges, universities, libraries, museums, cultural organizations, state humanities councils, and scholarly, professional, and higher education associations. It is the only organization that brings together the U.S. humanities community as a whole. NHA is a fully remote workplace. Employees must live and work in the United States.

What we do:

• Cultivate support for federal funding for the humanities.
• Promote the public value of the humanities.
• Promote the value of studying the humanities.
• Convene the humanities community to explore best practices for advocating for the humanities on campus, in communities, and on Capitol Hill.

The National Humanities Alliance invites applications for a research fellow with experience analyzing large qualitative data sets for a project that aims to demonstrate how the humanities prepare graduates to contribute to the national workforce. This 3-year position is supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The fellow’s primary responsibility will be to conduct an in-depth, empirical analysis of career pathway trends among a large sample of humanities graduates using a large, anonymized data set (n=100,000+) from LinkedIn that includes extensive information about individuals' educational and professional trajectories. The fellow should bring coding skills and/or a command of AI tools that will enable them to distill this rich qualitative data for quantitative analysis and visualization.

The research fellow will also assist with data collection and analysis for a pilot national humanities career pathways survey and case studies of institutions that have successfully demonstrated how humanities graduates contribute to the local workforce.

More broadly, the research fellow will have the opportunity to learn about the use of research in advocacy, mobilizing coalitions on local and national levels, and project management. They will work with representatives from a diverse range of organizations that are central to the humanities, including higher ed institutions of all types (including access-oriented institutions), scholarly societies, and community organizations, as they document the humanities workforce and distribute findings from our analysis.

Reporting Structure: The research fellow will report to the director of education advocacy

Term: This is a full-time, 3-year position.

Job Classification: Exempt

Essential Functions:

• Leverage digital tools to analyze a large LinkedIn data set rich in qualitative data, identifying patterns in the types of jobs/industries humanities graduates pursue, their ability to successfully transition across industries and roles, advancement over time, etc., and illustrating those patterns through quantitative analysis and data visualizations.
• Conduct and participate in interviews with faculty, staff, administrators, and employers who have highlighted opportunities for leveraging the humanities to contribute to the local workforce.
• Collect, analyze, and synthesize data, creating reports for a wide range of public audiences.
• Collaborate closely with the director of education advocacy to determine how to best analyze data and communicate findings to advance advocacy goals
• Additional responsibilities as assigned by the director of education advocacy.

Required Qualifications:

• Advanced research experience in a humanities, social science, or data science discipline. Demonstrated experience analyzing large, complex (qualitative) data sets.

Preferred Qualifications

• A strong ability to choose among alternatives and identify key priorities for work.
• Demonstrated knowledge of educational policy and/or research on career outcomes.
• Excellent writing, interpersonal, organizational, and leadership skills.
• Experience working and communicating with non-academic audiences.

Compensation: The salary for this position is $70,000. A full benefits package—including health insurance and retirement—is provided to all NHA staff members.

To apply: Please submit a substantive cover letter and resume to Scott Muir, Ph.D., Director of Education Advocacy, National Humanities Alliance, at smuir@nhalliance.org. Applications that demonstrate both academic and non-academic work experience are strongly encouraged. Review of applications will begin August 11th and continue until someone has been hired, with the goal of a September 1 start date. The NHA is an equal opportunity employer.