I’m a historian by training who, by a mix of luck, chance, and timing, currently works in environmental sustainability. My dissertation was nominally an institutional history of food safety inspection, but in many respects offers a history of the regulation of health and safety risks, a topic of great interest and salience in science, engineering, and in business management. I finished my PhD in 2020, so I had to get creative with my job prospects. I ultimately landed a gig doing qualitative analysis for a research study on public perceptions of nanotechnology in food and agriculture, which led to my current role in stakeholder engagement for phosphorus sustainability.
I have been an advocate for humanists doing interdisciplinary, publicly engaged research for many years, and increasingly I believe that humanists should know more about STEM job opportunities, not as a vague “alt-ac” promise, but for what they look like on their own terms — as a very different institutional ecosystem that functions very differently than most humanities departments. Working as a “social scientist” (which in NSF parlance encompasses everything that’s not science) in one of these large institutes or grants will not be for everyone. It requires some difficult decisions about what kind of work you want to do and what kind of work you feel comfortable doing. At the same time, it is an incredible opportunity (and responsibility) to make the case for why the humanities and social sciences matter.
The NSF is making a major push for “convergence” research, which they define as problem-driven, deeply interdisciplinary research. They are interested in initiatives that address historic inequities and injustices, and in broadening participation to include more disciplines and identity backgrounds. I firmly believe that humanists belong in convergence research spaces.
If you’re a humanist who works in STEM or works closely with scientists and engineers, or you know someone who does, please connect with me. I would love to talk to you.