Beyond the PhD: A Masterclass with Dr Jonathan Michael Square

Thursday, 23 November, 10.00am-12.30pm

Clarice Pears Building, Seminar Room 103 (Side A), University of Glasgow, 90 Byres Rd, Glasgow G12 8TB -- with option for joining online

This half-day masterclass organised by SGSAH’s Heritage Knowledge Exchange Hub is all about exploring, discussing and reflecting on the myriad challenges and opportunities presented by the shift to life beyond the PhD. 

What practical tools and strategies can be used to effectively build one's professional profile, particularly if you are keen to expand your network and form connections with the cultural heritage sector? Having produced a wealth of original research, how can this be harnessed to engage wider, non-academic audiences and stakeholders? How might you pivot away from your doctoral research and move into an entirely new area of professional practice and/or research inquiry? This masterclass is an opportunity to dig into these questions and engage in candid conversation and reflection on the issues they raise. The masterclass will examine ways of branching off into non-academic sectors, especially those aligned with museums, galleries and cultural heritage; engaging non-academic audiences with your research; and methods for building a dynamic professional profile. There will also be break half-way through for informal conversation and networking (refreshments and pastries will be provided). 

This event will be led by Dr Jonathan Michael Square (Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design, New York City) and facilitated by Dr Rosie Spooner (SGSAH Heritage Hub Co-Lead and Lecturer in Information Studies, University of Glasgow), early career researchers whose journeys in, out and around academia have been circuitous, non-linear and often involved working in collaboration with museums, galleries and other cultural heritage organisations.

This masterclass has been organised to coincide with Square delivering the 2023 Annual James McCune Smith Lecture hosted by the Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies at the University of Glasgow.

Additional Information 

This is an in-person event open to PhD students based at higher education institutions in Scotland. Please use your institutional email address when registering. If you are based outside of Glasgow and would like to attend this event, the SGSAH Heritage Knowledge Exchange Hub can offer financial support for travel costs (and, in some cases, accommodation costs as well). Please email Kat Collins, Administrator for the Heritage Hub (kat.collins@glasgow.ac.uk), for more information.

If you would like to attend this event but are not able to join in person, please indicate your intention to join online when registering (you will be prompted to answer a required question about mode of attendance).   

If you would like to attend this event, whether in-person or online, and it has sold out, please email Kat Collins (kat.collins@glasgow.ac.uk) to register your interest. 

Biographical Note

Dr Jonathan Michael Square is a writer, historian, and curator of Afro-Diasporic fashion and visual culture, and Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design in New York City. Prior to joining Parsons, he held teaching and research positions at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, and was a fellow in the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Square curated the exhibition Past Is Present: Black Artists Respond to the Complicated Histories of Slavery (Herron School of Art and Design, 2022-23), and is currently preparing a forthcoming exhibition titled Afric-American Picture Gallery for the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. He founded and leads the digital humanities project Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom.