Are the humanities making a comeback?

Here is a taste of Jennifer Kingson’s Axios piece, “STEM who? The humanities mount a comeback:

Driving the news: When the University of California, Berkeley, reported an uptick in humanities majors this academic year, there was elation — and shock — at the prospect of a trend reversal.

• The number of first-year Berkeley students declaring majors in the arts and humanities — which includes English, history, languages, philosophy and media studies — was up 121% over last year.
• The number of high schoolers applying to Berkeley with the intention of studying humanities was up 43.2% from five years ago, and up 73% vs. 10 years ago.

“Students are turning to the arts and humanities as a way to make sense of our current moment,” Sara Guyer, dean of Berkeley’s division of arts and humanities and director of the World Humanities Report, told the university’s news service.

• The University of Arizona’s College of Humanities has seen a 33% increase in student majors since 2016.
• A handful of other schools — such as Arizona State University and the University of Washington — have also seen a rise in students declaring humanities majors.

What’s happening: Some professors, colleges and departments have been trying to boost humanities’ popularity by touting their real-world utility.

• They’re citing salary information that’s competitive with STEM fields and the value of critical-thinking and writing skills.
• And they’re making the case that studying history and literature is essential to becoming a well-rounded global citizen — or corporate middle-manager.

What they’re saying: “We’re seeing enrollment increases where there’s actual conscious attention to giving the humanities the resources they need to make a case for their value,” Paula Krebs, executive director of the Modern Language Association, tells Axios.

• “Biology majors aren’t making any more money than we do, and they’re getting all this press like they’re some sort of golden tickets.”
• The humanities “have always relied on people understanding the intrinsic value of philosophy, history, English literature and foreign language study, so we haven’t made the case distinctly enough to our students for what it does for them after they graduate,” Krebs added

Read the entire piece here.

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