In the last ten years, curriculum professors have seen the impact of their programs decrease.  In the midst of these challenges, many in curriculum studies work to re-align themselves to maintain complicated conversations at the risk of losing programs altogether.  In this article we explore historical and organizational contexts to offer strategic trajectories for curriculum studies to connect in new ways.  Our article is not a treatise on the demise of curriculum studies and doctoral programs—it is an evaluation of the dramatic shifts within. The concerns in our essay are contextualized within the changing nature of education and doctoral programs.  We argue that curriculum studies does not fit new models of graduate work because it struggles with its identity and has eschewed most practical applications of theory to bridge the divide among varied perspectives in curriculum thought and their role to curriculum work. Curriculum has historically served a critical and unifying role in education to understand the daily lives of educators; support reflective process of teaching; and increase valuation of education as policy.  With this in mind, we argue that in order for curriculum studies to survive, we need to imagine new ways of connecting to practice and policy.