Natalie Berkman *18 FIT
Leader, Entrepreneur, Advocate
Director of Curriculum and Learning Innovation
Natalie Berkman is a higher-education leader, instructional designer and advocate for humanities Ph.D.s pursuing diverse career paths. After earning her Ph.D. in French literature from Princeton University, she built a career outside the tenure track in academic administration, curriculum design and EdTech consulting, while continuing to teach, publish and present at international conferences. Her research, at the intersection of mathematics and literature, has appeared in leading academic journals and as a monograph, “The OuLiPo and the Mathematics of Literature,” which won the 2019 Peter Lang Young Scholars Competition in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century French Studies. Berkman has been actively involved in supporting graduate student career development through Princeton’s GradFUTURES initiative and her leadership on the board of the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni, where she advocates for alumni engagement across all career stages. Drawing on her own transition from academia to administration, she helps humanities Ph.D.s recognize the breadth of their skills and envision fulfilling careers both in and beyond the academy.