Where Historians Work: An Interactive Database of History PhD Career Outcomes

Where Historians Work is an interactive, online database that catalogs the career outcomes of historians who earned PhDs at universities in the United States from 2004 to 2017. Powered by Tableau, Where Historians Work provides the fullest picture of PhD careers available for any discipline. This tool allows current and potential graduate students to understand the full scope of career options open to history PhDs and to research which departments best fit their values and goals, enables departments to better meet the professional development needs of their doctoral students, and documents the broad impact of doctoral education in history.

Where Historians Work was first released in 2018. At that time, the data set included career outcomes for the 8,523 historians who earned PhDs at PhD-granting universities in the United States from 2004 to 2013. In 2022, the AHA released four years of additional data, adding career outcomes for the 3,787 historians who earned PhDs at US universities from 2014 to 2017. 

Where Historians Work is a product of the AHA’s Career Diversity for Historians initiative, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 

Where Historians Work, 2004–13

Where Historians Work, 2014–17

Methodology

Exploring the Visualizations

The Where Historians Work database consists of two separate dashboards: one containing the 2004 to 2013 dataset and the other containing the 2014 to 2017 dataset. Each dashboard features seven interactive data visualizations. Toolbars near the top of the dashboards allow users to view career outcomes in the aggregate and filter the results by variables such as gender, graduation year, department, and field specialization. Many slides contain additional information that can be accessed by hovering your cursor over individual data points. The Where Historians Work dashboards are best viewed in a desktop browser in full screen. 

We hope users will explore the data, make discoveries, and share them with us. You can read a summary of initial findings from when the original 2004 to 2013 data set was published in 2017 here. A summary of findings from the 2014 to 2017 data set can be found here. Please send any comments or questions about Where Historians Work to Hope Shannon, the AHA’s marketing and engagement manager. 

Acknowledgments

Team
Project Director: Emily Swafford
Project Coordinators: Dylan Ruediger, Hope Shannon
Project Contributors: Avrati Bhatnagar, Megan Connor, Claire Vanderwood