Example Image
Civitas Outlook
Topic
Pursuit of Happiness
Published on
Jun 20, 2024
Contributors
Benjamin Storey
Jenna Storey
"Part of a bookshelf containing books by Aristotle (1)" by Wikipedia user Tetra. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / Cropped from original.

Will Republicans Save the Humanities?

Contributors
Benjamin Storey
Benjamin Storey
Non-Resident Senior Fellow
Benjamin Storey
Jenna Storey
Jenna Storey
Non-Resident Senior Fellow
Jenna Storey
Summary
Colleges in red and purple states have been going on a hiring spree.
Summary
Colleges in red and purple states have been going on a hiring spree.
Listen to this article

For the first time in decades, certain parts of the long-suffering humanities are a growth sector in higher ed. Even more surprisingly, this expansion is being driven by state legislatures and governing boards dominated by Republicans.

At public colleges in red and purple states like Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah, about 200 tenure- and career-track faculty lines are being created in new academic units devoted to civic education, according to Paul Carrese, founding director of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership (SCETL) at Arizona State University. These positions are being filled by faculty members trained in areas including political theory, history, philosophy, classics, and English. Since there are only about 2,000 jobs advertised in all those disciplines combined in a typical year, the creation of 200 new lines is a significant event.

Because a political party intensely critical of higher education has backed the founding of those programs, some worry that they will debase academic standards, subject intellectual life to political imperatives, and constrain teaching within certain ideological limits. Others hope that this burst of hiring might help colleges better prepare students for civic life and rebuild interest in the humanities.

Continue reading the entire article at The Chronicle of Higher Education

10:13
1x
10:13
More articles

Making Sense of the Court's Establishment Clause Doctrine

Constitutionalism
Aug 18, 2025

The Education of David Mamet

Pursuit of Happiness
Aug 15, 2025
View all

Join the newsletter

Receive new publications, news, and updates from the Civitas Institute.

Sign up
More on

Pursuit of Happiness

How to Save Our Urban Centers

What will the future of American cities look like?

Joel Kotkin
Pursuit of Happiness
Jun 26, 2025
National Poll from Civitas Institute: Americans Concerned About AI, Economic Issues

The Civitas Institute Poll, conducted from March 11-20, 2025, asked 1,200 Americans an array of questions about how things are going in the country.

Daron Shaw
Pursuit of Happiness
Jun 11, 2025
Divorce, Family Arrangements, and Children's Adult Outcomes

This paper uses linked tax and Census records for over 5 million children to examine how divorce affects family arrangements and children's long-term outcomes.

Andrew C. Johnston
Pursuit of Happiness
May 22, 2025
Estimating the Productivity of Community Colleges in Paving the Road To Four-Year College Success

Despite a relatively rich literature on the community college pathway, the research base on the quality differences between these institutions has been decidedly thin.

Scott Carrell, Michal Kurlaender
Pursuit of Happiness
Feb 7, 2025
No items found.
Beware the New Eugenics

Who decides what humans become?

Joel Kotkin
Pursuit of Happiness
Jul 1, 2025
Humanity According to Alasdair MacIntyre

He reminded us that life is mainly about love and friendship, not reason and will.

O. Carter Snead
Pursuit of Happiness
Jun 5, 2025
Charter Schools Are Not ‘State Actors,’ And SCOTUS Should Have Said So

Charter schools need more autonomy than district schools if American families are going to have real choice in education.

Michael Toth, Gavin Schiffres
Pursuit of Happiness
May 28, 2025
The Death of the Family Home Is Killing the American Middle Class

The US is following the UK and Australia back down the road to a feudal past, thanks to policies forcing people into dense city centres.

Joel Kotkin
Pursuit of Happiness
May 25, 2025

Arthur Brooks on the Secret to a Fulfilling Life

Pursuit of Happiness
Jul 7, 2025
1:05

Populism Unpacked: Voices from the Heartland

Pursuit of Happiness
Mar 4, 2025
1:05

Jeff Rosen on What “The Pursuit of Happiness” Meant to America's Founders

Pursuit of Happiness
Jan 26, 2025
1:05

Arthur C. Brooks on the Pursuit of Happiness in an Unhappy World

Pursuit of Happiness
May 8, 2024
1:05

Arthur C. Brooks on The Art & Science of Getting Happier: Live at The Texas Tribune

Pursuit of Happiness
Mar 29, 2024
1:05
No items found.
No items found.
The Education of David Mamet

The inherent complexity of an artist is that he ought to be nationless, placeless, even languageless. But Mamet proves that such a thing is impossible.

Emina Melonic
Pursuit of Happiness
Aug 15, 2025
Ed Feulner, Movement Man

Feulner’s vision of modern conservatism was one of ordered liberty: one that drew as much on classical liberals like Hayek as it did on older traditions that have shaped the American Founding and Western civilization.

Samuel Gregg
Pursuit of Happiness
Jul 25, 2025
Beyond the Melting Point: Exodus, the Sequel

“If we cannot get the Holy Land, we can make another land holy." Israel Zangwill

Juliana Geran Pilon
Pursuit of Happiness
Jul 25, 2025
Carl Trueman’s Trek Through the Inferno

Unchecked by reason, tradition, or authority, the critical impulse becomes a kind of universal solvent, eroding ideas, institutions, cultures, families, communities, art, literature, philosophy, and law—everything that makes life beautiful or worthwhile.

Rachel Lu
Pursuit of Happiness
Jul 18, 2025
No items found.