Are the Humanities Really Dying?

The U.S. media has run several stories recently on the “death of the humanities,” with undergraduate enrollments dropping by more than 50% at some schools. But Karin Beck, an associate dean at Lehman College in New York City, says this is misleading. Elite schools’ humanities programs are declining – but her school, which mostly serves low-income and first-generation students, is graduating more humanities majors than ever before. She argues that culturally sensitive and rewarding humanities classes can captivate anyone, even students who are assumed to lack interest. Weigh her arguments in Inside Higher Ed. (June 2023) …