Profile of Race and Ethnic Studies Departments (HDS 3)

All the counts, percentages, and averages included in the narrative below are estimates generated from data collected for the third round of the Humanities Department Survey (HDS 3). The survey response rate for race and ethnic studies departments was 58%. (For more on how to interpret the results, see the Introduction in the complete profile for this discipline.)

This was the first time the discipline of race and ethnic studies was included in the HDS. The sampling frame for this discipline was developed from a list of institutions that awarded an average of at least one degree in each of the previous five years in a subject classified by the U.S. Department of Education as focused on one of the nation’s racial or ethnic populations, and also a careful staff review of the web sites for those institutions to identify departments and degree-granting programs in the subject area.1

Although the disciplinary category has been included from the beginning in the HI’s definition of the humanities, a small but notable number of respondents objected, because they identified their department as being either within the social sciences or as falling into a category somewhere between advocacy and social service. (The HI staff welcomes recommendations regarding the construction of this category for future rounds of the study.)

In fall 2017, 272 departments were granting degrees in race and ethnic studies.

Download the full profile (PDF) or see the the main HDS 3 report.

Endnotes

1Indicators staff used the following categories in the Department of Education’s Classification of Instructional Programs: 05.0200 Ethnic Studies; 05.0201 African-American/Black Studies; 05.0202 American Indian/Native American Studies; 05.0203 Hispanic-American, Puerto Rican, and Mexican- American/Chicano Studies; 05.0206 Asian-American Studies; and 05.0299 Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies, Other.

Findings and Trends

Students

Total enrollment in undergraduate race and ethnic studies courses was 141,930 in fall 2017 (with an average enrollment of 521.8 per department).2
On average, race and ethnic studies departments awarded 10.3 bachelor’s degrees per department in the 2016–17 academic year. Students also completed an average of 11.7 minors.
Total enrollment in graduate-level race and ethnic studies courses was 16,380 (with an average enrollment of 60.2 students per department). The average number of students pursuing an advanced degree in race and ethnic studies was 64.1 per department that granted such degrees.

Faculty

Race and ethnic studies departments employed 2,653 full- and part-time faculty members in fall 2017, with an average of 9.7 faculty per department. Seventy-two percent of the faculty were either tenured or on the tenure track, and 26% were employed part-time.
Thirty-seven percent of race and ethnic studies departments hired a new permanent faculty member for the start of the 2017–18 academic year, and 36% had a faculty member come up for tenure in the previous two years.
Women constituted 54% of the faculty members in race and ethnic studies departments in fall 2017. Fifty-four percent of tenured faculty members were women, compared to 66% of faculty members on the tenure track and 49% of those off the tenure track.
While 93% of race and ethnic studies departments provided research support for their full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty members and 73% offered such support for full-time nontenured or non-tenure-track faculty, only 32% offered such support for part-time faculty.

Supporting Student Careers

While 47% of race and ethnic studies departments rated the career services at their college or university “good” or “very good” for their students, 16% rated them “poor” or “very poor.”

Engaging the Digital

Twenty-four percent of race and ethnic studies departments had one or more faculty members specializing in the digital humanities, but only 10% had formal guidelines for evaluating digital publications for tenure and promotion.
In the 2016–17 academic year, 34% of race and ethnic studies departments offered fully online courses, while 15% offered hybrid courses. Departments offered an average of 4.5 fully online courses and two hybrid courses (each average was calculated over the number of departments offering a course of that kind).

Endnotes

2Students who enrolled in more than one course in the discipline are counted in each course in which they enrolled. The same is true for the graduate course enrollment values given below. Medians for all “per department” quantities mentioned in this section are available in the corresponding data tables (please see the Appendix, Part B).

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