Event recap written by Elaine Chen, PhD Candidate, Germanic Languages & Literatures | Comparative Literature
Sam Ewing PhD ’20 never imagined that his time at Harvard would lead him to a fulfilling career as a Field Organizer for the United Auto Workers. But as he explained to graduate students at this month’s PhDs with Purpose event, unexpected events can sometimes teach us the most about ourselves and about our professional goals and priorities.
Lesson 1: Don’t Let Yourself Be Pigeonholed
When Sam was a graduate in the Department of Art and Art History, the expectation was that he and his classmates would go into one of two fields: either they become academics or they enter the world of museum and gallery curation. Sam’s mentors encouraged him from the beginning to choose one of these two tracks. That way, they argued, he could prioritize certain opportunities over others. That would make it easier, in the long run, to secure the kind of role he wanted.
But there was a problem: Sam wasn’t sure which of these two career paths he preferred. He enjoyed teaching and scholarly work; he also enjoyed many aspects of curatorial work just as much. “Why should I arbitrarily prioritize one path over another,” he asked himself, when ultimately, he was open to both. And if he wasn’t sure what he wanted then, then he certainly couldn’t predict how he would feel a couple of years in the future.
So, Sam resisted conventional wisdom. While at Harvard, he took on many kinds of roles on top of his scholarship. He worked as a head TF for lecture courses and joined the team that created the Harvard Graduate Student Union (HGSU). He got involved in curatorial work as well, assisting curators at the Harvard Art Museums on their exhibitions. He even took a position as a tour guide at the Boston MFA, leading gallery talks two to three times a month.
That combination of openness and hard work paid off. In 2018, Sam was offered a three-year fellowship in the curatorial department at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Since Sam was still a graduate student at the time, it meant he would have to find time outside of his 9-5 job to complete his dissertation—and he admits that wasn’t always possible. But Sam loved his job at PMA, because it allowed him to work on exhibitions, propose acquisitions, undertake research, and even to teach university classes in the museum’s Art Study Room. The researcher, the teacher, and the curator in Sam were all satisfied by this position.
Lesson 2: Don’t Be Afraid of Setbacks
The only drawback about Sam’s fellowship was that it was a fixed term position. After it ended, Sam moved with his partner to Mississippi, then back to Philadelphia soon after. He taught art history as an adjunct, while making plans for the next step in his career. In 2023, he finally got “The Dream Job,” working as a senior researcher at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. He would supervise a team of researchers tasked with producing a catalogue raisonné for the American artist Robert Rauschenberg—an annotated list of all of the artist’s works with scholarly commentary and a full history of provenance.
This was exactly the kind of position any young art historian would hope to hold: Sam worked at the artist’s former residence and studio in NYC, employed by a prestigious institution. His expertise was highly valued by his colleagues. Every day presented amazing opportunities to network with experts in his field. And, for Sam in particular, it meant that he would get to be both an academic and a curator.
But what looked like a dream on paper posed more challenges. Sam had to commute from Philadelphia, where he still lived with his partner, to New York three days a week. He didn’t feel as aligned to the work as he initially expected. He witnessed some real challenges of the non-profit sector that made it difficult to imagine how he could grow a career in this space. Sam started to wonder whether this was really the life for him.
Lesson 3: Build Your Support Network
Hoping to find some clarity about his situation, Sam made an advising appointment at the Mignone Center for Career Success. The career assessment process helped Sam to reflect more deeply on his values and goals. He realized that he wanted to be more directly involved in the process of social change. He wanted to be part of a team with a shared sense of purpose, working to make the world a better place. When Sam eventually departed the Rauschenberg Foundation, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It meant that he could begin to imagine other places where his skills might be valued.
In his conversations with the Mignone Center for Career Success graduate advising team, Sam realized that he had a wealth of experience that wasn’t reflected in his application materials. Working for the HGSU, Sam had become a great project manager and mentor. But he’d left his organizing work off his resume, worried that some hiring managers might not appreciate his experience as an organizer. He’d also learned many skills as a scholar and a curator that weren’t obviously communicated by the job titles themselves.
Lesson 4: Focus on Your Skills
When Sam looked at all of the experience he actually had, it told the story of a person who was more than either a scholar or a curator. There were, in fact, many different kinds of jobs that he was qualified to do. And, he now saw that organizing had brought him a sense of purpose that he couldn’t live without. Any organization where he would want to work would have to appreciate this part of his professional history, too.
Sam updated his resume so that it better reflected his experience. He started to tell his own story differently. When he went back on the job market, he still applied to roles related to his art history degree, but also applied for jobs in other fields as well. And that is how Sam found his way to his current job as a Field Organizer for the UAW.
Sam loves his current job. Even though he is no longer an academic, he gets to meet and talk with academics every day. He gets to work with them to solve workplace problems, which makes him feel more fulfilled, knowing that he is helping others. And he still gets to use many of the skills he developed during his graduate work and his fellowship years. When he can, Sam takes on small jobs related to his research. He currently teaches an art history class at Rutgers and takes on commissioned curatorial work when he can. With his new career, Sam has been able to find work that is purposeful, and which doesn’t force him to sacrifice any one part of himself for another. He can be an organizer and a scholar and teacher and a curator.
