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Entries by Sterling Fluharty

Cliopatria's History Blogroll Part I / Part II.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

I want to know who reads the monographs we produce in our profession. A recent book claims that the average academic monograph in the humanities sells about 200 copies. My own recent analysis of library purchasing trends since 1945 demonstrated an unmistakable decline in the acquisition of history books since the mid-1960s. There is some debate on whether this decline has happened because so many fewer college students major in history these days. Others have laid the blame on academic historians who don't try hard enough to write books that are interesting to the public. Whatever the cause may be for the shrinking sales of history books, I have a proposal for the profession on how we just might be able to measure our relevancy.

Posted on Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 10:57 PM | Comments (8) | Top

Thursday, April 9, 2009

What Should History Majors Learn?

Yesterday the New York Times and Inside Higher Ed ran articles on a new effort at colleges and universities in Indiana, Minnesota, and Utah to establish learning outcomes for undergraduate majors in history and a few other fields. In the latter article, Scott Jaschik dug up a list of history competencies used in the Bologna Process in Europe that will serve as a foundation for this American pilot project, which is funded by Lumina.

Posted on Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 4:13 AM | Comments (11) | Top

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Let's Automate the Process of Post-Tenure Review

Earlier this week the faculty at the University of Maryland at College Park voted down a proposal that would have reduced salaries for professors that had received three consecutive years of negative post-tenure reviews. Hat tip.

The students generally supported this proposal, but it was faculty opposition that killed it. I would have sided with the students in this instance. I agree with President Obama that a teacher's salary should be based on their performance.

Posted on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 10:17 PM | Comments (2) | Top

Friday, March 20, 2009

2008 Digest of Education Statistics

Among other things, this new report shows that the numbers of students awarded bachelors and masters degrees in history rose in 2006-07, but the number of PhDs awarded in history fell. Of course, the recession will impact these numbers and likely decrease the number of students majoring and graduating in history.

Posted on Friday, March 20, 2009 at 4:11 AM | Comments (0) | Top

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Tracking Humanities Students, Obama-Style

In a major education address earlier this week, President Obama made the following observation:

Far too few states have data systems like the one in Florida that keep track of a student’s education from childhood through college. And far too few districts are emulating the example of Houston and Long Beach, and using data to track how much progress a student is making and where that student is struggling.

We need the same thing in humanities graduate programs. Within history doctoral programs, for instance, the dropout rate is about 50 percent. The recently-passed stimulus legislation has made $250 million available for educational data systems. I believe the time to act is now.

Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 at 6:05 PM | Comments (4) | Top

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Women Making Gains in College, But Not in History

Women now comprise 55 percent of undergraduates and 60 percent of graduate students, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But a sample of over 500 schools from the latest Department of Education data shows that women are receiving only 40.3 percent of bachelors degrees in history. What is keeping large numbers of women from majoring in history?

Posted on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 12:10 PM | Comments (10) | Top

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