Monday, January 23, 2017 | 3:30pm – 5:30pm | Royce Hall 306
In this talk, Alison Walker speaks about her journey from UCLA Ph.D. to Amazon.com and offers graduate students a fresh perspective on how to leverage scholarly skills outside the academy. Using examples from her time as graduate student, job-seeker, postdoctoral researcher, and small business owner, Alison illustrates the challenges and opportunities for Ph.D.s as they rethink and reimagine their careers.
Wine & Cheese Reception to Follow
Alison Walker (bio): Alison Walker completed her Ph.D. in English, with specializations in Medieval Literature and Digital Humanities, in June 2011. While a student at UCLA, she worked closely with the medieval manuscripts and digital humanities initiatives at UCLA was twice the recipient of the British Library’s Internship in Illuminated Manuscripts. After graduating, Alison worked as a Mellon-funded postdoctoral researcher at Saint Louis University’s Center for Digital Humanities, where she helped to develop T-PEN (Transcription for Paleographical and Editorial Notation) and Tradamus—software applications that assist scholars in transcribing manuscripts and creating digital editions. After her postdoctoral research, Alison taught for a year as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Puget Sound’s department of English. Alison has published on medieval manuscripts, the digital humanities, and medieval film music. While writing her dissertation, Alison started an online business selling mid-century design objects to clients worldwide. Her shop has been featured in Apartment Therapy, Gourment magazine, and Etsy and has sourced products for Mad Men, Anthropologie, and Hawaii 5-0, among others. Currently, Alison lives in Seattle and works as a Senior Curator at Amazon Books, where she curates the selection of titles for many categories in Amazon’s growing network of brick-and-mortar bookstores, including Art & Design, Entertainment, Graphic Novels, and Science Fiction.
Co-sponsored by: UCLA Career Center, Division of Humanities, Division of Social Sciences and Graduate Division
In Collaboration with: Partnership UCLA, Graduate Student Resource Center, and the History Department