This summer we’ve been reaching out to scholarly societies to learn about how they are communicating all their disciplines have to offer to prospective students. This is part of our Study the Humanities initiative, through which we are collecting and sharing strategies to help faculty, administrators, and scholarly societies make the case for studying the humanities as an undergrad. We’ve noticed that several scholarly societies have had great success with academic competitions that introduce students to their disciplines long before they arrive on campus.

As higher education institutions continue to make cuts to humanities departments (Millsaps College, Tulsa University, Wheeling Jesuit University), we are working to collect and share successful strategies for making the case for studying the humanities as an undergraduate, helping humanists to secure their rightful place on campus.

On March 11th, 233 humanities advocates gathered for our Annual Meeting at The LINE DC. It was inspiring to see so many passionate humanists joining together to promote the value of the humanities on campuses, in communities, and on Capitol Hill. We spent the morning digging into efforts to attract more undergraduate students to the humanities, hearing from six movers and shakers who shared innovative strategies they’ve used on their campuses.