A conversation with four doctorate-holding professionals:

Cassius Adair

Cassius Adair (Ph.D., Michigan) is an independent audio producer, writer, and researcher from Virginia. For the 2021–22 academic year, he is a Fellow at the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) with an affiliation at the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota. He is the lead producer of the podcast Transcripts, a production of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project.

Jacquelyn Ardam

Jacquelyn Ardam (Ph.D., UCLA) is the assistant director of the Undergraduate Research Center for the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at UCLA, where she runs scholarship programs and teaches undergraduate students how to do research. Her book Avidly Reads Poetry will be published by NYU Press in April 2022.

Melissa Chan

Melissa Chan (Ph.D., USC) is a project manager at ECA Partners, where she works with clients to place top talent in permanent positions across industries and functions. Prior to ECA, Melissa was an Andrew W. Mellon Digital Humanities Doctorate Fellow at USC, where she completed her doctorate in East Asian Languages and Cultures.

Paul Erickson

Paul Erickson (Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin) is the Randolph G. Adams Director of the Clements Library, University of Michigan. Previously, he served as director of academic programs at the American Antiquarian Society, and program director for Humanities, Arts, and Culture and American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Each speaker will talk about their academic journey from grad school to their current position, and then join in conversation with attendees.