Tracking Changes in the Humanities
Most support for research and teaching in the
humanities comes from within higher education itself. Yet, critics of the
contemporary university have argued that the humanities are losing ground
inside America’s colleges and universities. Verifying if this is true requires
reliable and measurable data about such topics as trends in university
financing, student enrollments in humanities courses, growth in numbers of
tenure track faculty, and later career choices of humanities graduates.
However, the humanities lack the reliable,
comprehensive, and consistently updated data necessary to draw accurate
conclusions about the state of the humanities in higher education, or
elsewhere. As a result, the Initiative for Humanities and Culture seeks ways to
improve the collection, maintenance, and analysis of humanities-related data.
In 2003, the Academy convened a two-day workshop that brought together two very
different groups: representatives from several of the larger learned societies
in the humanities and researchers who specialize in educational policy. The
workshop provided the first occasion for participants to identify common
research questions and begin building a research community interested in
humanities policy issues.
Participants in the Academy workshop suggested three
large topics the Academy should explore in its efforts to refine the
statistical resources available to the humanities: (1) additional issues in
funding for the humanities, especially in the wake of new debates over the
“commercialization” of higher education; (2) career paths of students who major
in the humanities as undergraduates, as well as those who receive Ph.D.s in the
humanities; and (3) changes in the content and quality of liberal arts
education.
Four essays that emerged from the workshop were
published together in an Academy Occasional Paper, titled
Tracking Changes in the Humanities: Essays on Finance and Education.
The papers explore such topics as university financing of humanities
departments, post-baccalaureate opportunities for humanities graduates, and the
development of statistical indicators for the liberal arts. Together, they
demonstrate the need for further substantive research in these areas, offer
valuable suggestions for pursuing that research, and underscore the importance
of sustaining the dialogue among humanists and educational researchers.
The Rockefeller and Hewlett Foundations provided
funding for this project.
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