In the United States, most ethnic minorities have traditionally been underrepresented among humanities faculty, as they have among faculty in every other academic field (individuals of Asian descent are the exception). In 1988, when reliable nationally representative data describing the ethnic composition of humanities faculty became available through the NSOPF, less than 10% of all humanities faculty were nonwhite or Hispanic (Figure III-12a). Over the next decade-and-a-half this proportion grew, and by 2004 it amounted to 16%. Growth was greatest for Asians and African Americans, with both groups experiencing an increase of approximately 3 percentage points over the period, bringing these groups’ representation in 2004 to 4.9% and 5.1% respectively. The proportion of Hispanic faculty also grew, but only through 1999; thereafter it dropped somewhat, so that in 2004 Hispanic representation was 5.1%, less than 1 percentage point higher than it had been in 1988.

Figure III-12a, Full Size Supporting Data

Figure III-12b compares the humanities with other fields in terms of the representation of minority faculty. In 2004, the percentage of minority faculty in the humanities was lower than it was in most other fields and in the postsecondary faculty population as a whole. The highest minority representation was found in the natural sciences (close to 20%) and engineering (about 24%) due largely to the substantial numbers of faculty of Asian descent working in these fields. The other sciences—health and social—also outperformed the humanities with respect to the percentage of minority faculty, with approximately 18% of the faculty in each of these fields self-identifying as African American, Asian, American Indian/Alaska Native, or Hispanic. The only field with a substantially smaller share of minority faculty than the humanities was fine arts.

Figure III-12b, Full Size Supporting Data

Note on the Definition of Faculty and on the Classification of Disciplines Faculty For the purposes of the Humanities Indicators, a faculty member is defined as an employee of a two-year or four-year college or a university who teaches credit-earning courses and who may also perform research activities. Faculty thus include not only individuals who have faculty status in their institutions but also those who are classified as instructional staff by their employers. Faculty exclude those individuals whose duties are purely research oriented (even though such individuals may be classified as faculty by their institutions). Classification of Academic Disciplines The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the collector of the data on which the first indicator in this section is based (III-9, Number of Humanities Faculty) sorts postsecondary faculty by academic discipline, using a scheme that includes six humanities-related categories. Five of these have been combined by the Humanities Indicators for the purposes of estimating humanities faculty employment. They include: English Language and Literature Foreign Languages and Literatures History Philosophy and Religion Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies The sixth BLS category, Arts, Drama, and Music, does not distinguish between faculty who teach the academic study of the arts (treated by the Humanities Indicators as a humanities activity) and those who teach studio and performing arts. Consequently, faculty teaching the history and criticism of the fine arts and film are not included in the estimate of the number of humanities faculty. The National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF), the source of the data for the other indicators in this section, conceptualizes the humanities somewhat more narrowly than does the Humanities Indicators, including only those individuals teaching English, foreign languages, history, philosophy, and religion. Additionally, the NSOPF treats computer science as a natural science (although the Humanities Indicators considers this discipline to be part of the engineering field and classifies it as such for the purposes of the other indicators). Back to Content

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