Tenure Status of Humanities Faculty Employed by a Four-Year College or University, by Discipline, 2017

Tenure Status of Humanities Faculty Employed by a Four-Year College or University, by Discipline, 2017

Surveys conducted by the Humanities Indicators of departments at four-year colleges and universities found no evidence of a statistically significant decline in the number of humanities faculty from 2007 to 2012 or from 2012 to 2017. The same surveys also found no evidence of a shift from tenure-eligible lines to adjunct positions. Looking at the field as a whole, more than 60% of the faculty in humanities departments at four-year colleges and universities were either tenured or on the tenure track in 2017.

Some disciplines, however, did have considerably larger shares of tenured and tenure-track faculty than others. While over 80% of faculty in history of science and American studies were in these categories in 2017, less than 60% of faculty in English and languages and literatures other than English were of this type. Communication was the discipline with the smallest share—45%—of tenured/tenure-track faculty.25

Endnotes

• 25American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Humanities Indicators, The State of the Humanities in Four-Year Colleges and Universities (2017); and Susan White, Raymond Chu, and Roman Czujko, The 2012–13 Survey of Humanities Departments at Four-Year Institutions (College Park, Md.: Statistical Research Center, American Institute of Physics, 2014; sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences).