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Full Technical Report, 260 pp.

Despite considerable discussion in the media about the impact of the recent recession on academia in general and the humanities in particular, the results from the Humanities Departmental Survey (HDS-2) suggest considerable continuity between the 2007–08 and 2012–13 academic years—bearing in mind that we are only seeing snapshots from two moments in time. Among the degree-granting departments surveyed for both HDS-1 and HDS-2 (in art history, English, languages and literatures other than English, history, history of science, linguistics, combined languages and literatures programs, and religion at four-year institutions) the number of existing departments and faculty appeared relatively unchanged, though the number of students majoring in the humanities slipped. In every discipline, a relatively small number of departments who had granted degrees in 2007–08 were no longer offering degrees in the subject five years later. The declines ranged from 1 (out of 19) in history of science to about 40 (out of more than 1,250) in languages and literatures other than English (Figure 1). Note, however, that HDS-2 was not designed to capture new programs or departments created since the first round of the survey, in order to provide the clearest possible view of the changes. A review of data gathered by the federal government shows a net increase from 2007 to 2012 in the number of postsecondary institutions conferring degrees in two of the larger humanities disciplines, history and English (Figure 2). Thus the net reduction in the number of humanities degree-granting departments may be less pronounced than HDS-2 indicates. Alongside the departments that lost all degree-granting status, some departments reported the termination of degrees at some level in their programs (Figure 3). Among languages and literatures other than English (LLE), for instance, 12% reported the elimination of either an undergraduate or graduate degree, with 18% of the LLE departments at public institutions reporting such a loss. This could include the termination of a degree in one language in a multi-language department. Among all the departments in the survey, 6% reported the loss of a degree at some level, with a larger proportion (8%) of departments at public colleges and universities experiencing such a loss. Because not all departments that were granting degrees in 2007–08 were still doing so in 2012, HDS-2 recorded a modest drop in the number of humanities faculty (Figure 4) and a larger proportional decline in the number of juniors and seniors majoring in most of the humanities disciplines included in both surveys (Figure 5). But the declines recorded by the survey cannot tell the whole story of trends in the number of faculty and students in these disciplines. HDS-2 did not capture faculty members teaching in departments formed in the five years between the two rounds of the study, and thus the contraction of the faculty may be smaller than the study suggests. And even though the loss of degree-granting status removed some departments and programs from the survey (and thus their faculty, as well), this does not necessarily mean that positions were eliminated, as the teaching of particular subjects often continued even in the absence of a degree in the subject. Among departments that were in existence in both 2007 and 2012, English was the only discipline that experienced a statistically significant reduction in the average number of faculty in its departments. For more detailed findings in the specific topic areas addressed by the survey, see the summaries on faculty, students, digital humanities, workforce issues, and other departmental issues, as well as brief summaries for each of the disciplines.

Tables

Estimated Number of HDS-1 Departments and Faculty Members, Fall 2012 (art history, English, languages and literatures other than English, history, history of science, linguistics, combined languages and literatures programs, and religion) Estimated Number of Departments and Faculty Members, Fall 2012: New Disciplines (folklore, musicology, classical studies, philosophy, and communication)