Defying the Humanities Crisis

By Carl Straumsheim. Many humanities programs are fighting off cuts and trying to hold on to faculty lines, but two philosophy departments are boosting their enrollments and reputations through a combination of administrations willing to invest in the discipline and departments eager to go beyond them. The philosophy department at the University of Connecticut at Storrs has added eight new faculty members in the past two years, and it is now about twice as large as it was a few years ago. Meanwhile, the department at the University of Southern California has hired almost a dozen new professors in the last decade. USC's hiring has caused the program to rocket up 35 spots on the Philosophical Gourmet Report, which ranks graduate programs in philosophy based on the reputation of their faculty members. Read more...