This roundtable highlights the ways in which graduate students can use their research skills and scholarly expertise to explore non-academic career possibilities and, in turn, use non-academic positions to advance an academic research career. The presentations focus on new ways of translating academic skills into non-academic jobs and work-experiences credentials that are recognized by academic communities. By reflecting on their experiences of transition between academic and non-academic careers, Dominic Longo and Kathryn Zyskowski show the ways they used their research skills and scholarly expertise to explore non-academic career possibilities.

Dominic Longo is Director of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Center and Assistant Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. He is a comparative theologian with a PhD in Arabic and Islamic studies from Harvard University and a master’s in comparative theology from Boston College. His principal scholarly interests are in Islamic and Christian religious literature, spirituality, and literary theory—all of which he explores in his recent book, Spiritual Grammar: Genre and the Saintly Subject in Islam and Christianity (Fordham University Press, 2017). Longo has also taught courses in literature, theology, philosophy, Arabic, and Islamic studies at Harvard University, Northeastern University, and the New School.

Kathryn Zyskowski is a PhD candidate in sociocultural anthropology at the University of Washington. Her dissertation investigates the everyday impact of new technologies and a technology-centric economy for low-income and minority students in Hyderabad, India. Her dissertation research was funded by prestigious grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Fulbright Program, and the American Institute for Indian Studies. Zyskowski has also held research internships at Microsoft Research and Facebook Research on topics including crowdsourcing and women’s use of social media. After completing her PhD in June 2018, she will begin a full-time position at Facebook Research.

Part of New Scholarly Practices, Broader Career Paths in Near & Middle Eastern Studies, a project of the Next Generation Humanities PhD initiative of the Simpson Center for the Humanities.

Coffee, tea, and snacks provided.