Professor Offers Strategies for Attracting English Majors

Inside Higher Ed recently published an article highlighting the difficulties many universities in the U.S. face in maintaining enrollment of humanities students, especially English majors. Many are leaving this field behind in search of programs they believe will increase chances of employment and higher salary. Montclair State University has seen a 38.5% decrease of students in the English department since 2010.

Jonathan Greenberg, Chair of the English department, spoke to Insider Higher Ed about Montclair State’s attempt to remedy this issue. The university has added new concentrations within the English major: film and creative writing.

“This is a place to come to be a content creator; that’s the new term … whether you go on to be a Ken Burns or a Tyler Perry or whoever is generating the cultural products,” Greenberg said. “The culture industry is alive and well. English is the place to train to be a content creator or a cultural worker.”

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By Donaelle Benoit