Emily Pitts Donahoe: "(Un)Grading through the Polycrisis: Re-imagining Evaluation for a Better Humanities Future"
Emily Pitts Donahoe: "(Un)Grading through the Polycrisis: Re-imagining Evaluation for a Better Humanities Future"
In 2026, the sense of crisis in higher ed is more acute than ever: we’re facing constant political attacks, declining public trust, concerns about student learning and mental health, and big problems with AI—to name just a few pressing issues. Institutions and their faculty are responding to these issues in a variety of ways, and one notable area of focus is grade reform. In this talk, we’ll look at several different grading approaches institutions and individuals have taken in an attempt to meet the moment. I’ll share which of these approaches I think are most likely to benefit higher ed, and why. And I’ll argue that re-imagining our grading (and our pedagogy generally) from the ground up is a necessary step if we want to survive the polycrisis—and create a better future for the humanities.
Speaker bio: Emily Pitts Donahoe is Associate Director of Instructional Support in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi, and a lecturer in writing and rhetoric. She is the author of the substack newsletter Unmaking the Grade as well as the forthcoming books Collaborative Grading: A Practical Guide (U of Oklahoma Press) and, with coauthors Derek Bruff and Lindsay Masland, of How to Grade: Alternative Models for the College Classroom (Princeton UP).