Why Humanities Courses Are in Distress: A Modest Proposal for a Remedy

British Studies Lecture Series

Paula Marantz Cohen DREXEL UNIVERSITY

How can decline in enrollments in the humanities be explained? Nationwide in recent years estimates of the drop in liberal arts majors range from one-fourth to one-third of those in English, history, government, philosophy and other traditional subjects. English departments have been hit especially hard. One study found that faculty members seem to be in denial about the general decline. How in a practical way might interest in humanities majors be revived? One university has tried a blend, for example, of computer science and philosophy. At UT the Plan II program offers such courses as ‘Water and Society’, and ‘Law and Ethics’. Here is a hint about English majors: it has to do with Shakespeare.

Paula Marantz Cohen is Distinguished Professor of English and Dean of the Honors College at Drexel University. She is the author of five nonfiction books and five best-selling novels. She writes frequently for the Times Literary Supplement, The Yale Review, The American Scholar, and The Wall Street Journal. She is a co-editor of the Journal of Modern Literature and the host of the nationally distributed TV show, The Drexel InterView (retitled for next season The Civil Discourse).