To address declining enrollment in humanities, the Division of Arts and Humanities is introducing nine new introductory courses this fall. Initiated by Dean Sean Kelly, this effort seeks to captivate first-year students, whose initial enthusiasm for arts and humanities often wanes. Kelly attributes part of this to inadequate high school exposure and highlights how historical debates over what constitutes 'great works' complicate course designs. Despite some high-demand areas like creative writing, the initiative aims to rejuvenate interest in the broader humanities discipline by enhancing course appeal.
The kinds of introductory courses that we're teaching don't grab our students. That was the issue that I wanted us to have conversations about.
'The idea that you're studying something 'great' is motivating for a student, and that it was harder for us to say about any text that it is great had an effect on the kinds of courses that we were able to design and teach.'
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