The Humanities in the American University: A Belle Epoque?

Adam POTKAY

College of William & Mary, Virginia , United States

Dorota CHABRAJSKA

John Paul II Institute, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin , Poland

Abstract

The long-term prospects for the humanities in US universities are doubtful, but if one is lucky enough to have a full-time position as a tenured or tenure-eligible professor in any high- or mid-ranked US university, there has never been a better time than right now to teach and conduct scholarly research in the humanities. At least for the moment, tenure and thus job security remain in place; class size and the number of courses taught per term have been reduced; research has been greatly facilitated by electronic databases and web publication; the critical and ideological wars of the later twentieth century are largely behind us.

Keywords:

the condition of the humanities in United States, English literature instruction, humanities research, rising tuition costs in the US, the College of William & Mary in Virginia