Sidonie Smith, director of the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities and former president of the Modern Language Association, has authored a manifesto for the transformation of doctoral education in the humanities:
Anxieties about the vitality of the humanities within higher education run high. So, too, do anxieties about the evolving conditions of our work as academic humanists. For some, talk of change, with its rhetoric of urgency, becomes a trigger for holding fast to certain understandings of the life of the academic humanist. For others, it is a conundrum and a headache. I see it as an occasion to think purposefully about how to meet future challenges and how to calibrate the potential upsides of transformation.
In keeping with her conviction that the humanities can survive (and thrive) by pursuing a new ethics and praxis of scholarly communication, Smith welcomes the active participation of fellow scholars, students, and the the public at large in the open peer review of her work. We are implementing this review using Hypothes.is, a tool for online annotation and discussion. To learn how to use Hypothes.is to participate in the open peer review of Manifesto for the Humanities, take a look at our documentation. The open peer review period will run through June 15, 2015.