Where's Shakespeare?

A couple of nights ago, Dad the Emeritus Historian of Graeco-Roman Egypt noted, somewhat sardonically, that I appeared to be a rather conservative English professor.  Conservative, that is, in the sense that my courses emphasize close readings of mostly canonical texts (entirely canonical in the lower-divison surveys, less so in more specialized upper-division and graduate courses).  I'm a historicist in my scholarship, but a strictly literary historicist in the classroom.  Moreover, despite going to a theory-oriented school as an undergraduate, my interest in literary theory is entirely pragmatic: does it raise illuminating questions about a particular set of texts, or not? And if I had my druthers, quite frankly, we'd require Milton and Chaucer along with Shakespeare. 

Therefore, I ought to be the ideal audience for a report like Vanishing Shakespeare (PDF), which criticizes the disappearance of Shakespeare requirements.  Instead, this report reminded me why my academic "conservatism" has never progressed beyond occasional manifestations of crankiness.  I have always operated on the assumption that any critique of academic practice should be grounded in a) empirical evidence for current practices and b) historical awareness of past practices.  This report plays fast and loose with both a) and b).  Here, for example, is how the authors describe their undertaking:

To determine where Shakespeare stands in today's curriculum, ACTA surveyed English departments at the U.S. News & World Report's top 25 national universities and top 25 liberal arts colleges, as well as the Big Ten schools and select public universities in New York and California.  With the current festivities in our nation's capital in mind, we also looked at universities in or near the District of Columbia.  (9)

Now, as someone who does not teach in any sort of top 25 college or public research institution, I confess that this approach inspires me with a deep-seated urge to drop the Riverside Shakespeare on somebody's toes.  Repeat after me, children: this is not a representative sampling.  The curriculum at a Research I or an expensive liberal arts college has nothing to do with the curriculum at comprehensive institutions in rural areas serving first-generation college students.  Or even comprehensive institutions in urban areas serving first-generation college students.  Let's try an experiment, shall we?

I wandered over to the Index of American Universities and checked the Shakespeare requirements for colleges and universities with "State" in the name.  I did so on the (correct) assumption that such schools would be comprehensives, frequently located in rural or relatively low-population urban areas.   To be honest, I had never heard of most of them before undertaking this exercise.  And that was precisely the point: what happens when we move away from elite schools? The final count in my list, available beneath the fold, is 120 public schools (I did not try to exhaust all of the CSU and SUNY campuses).

Now, it's important to remember, as ACTA does not, that most English departments actually have several concentrations, tracks, or emphases.  (Tom Dillingham called the C 18-L list's attention to that salient detail.)  Shakespeare may be required in some tracks, but not in others.  Bearing that in mind, what are the statistics?

ACTA: 15 out of 70 schools, or approximately 21.5%, required Shakespeare (NB: Dillingham has shown that at least one of the schools they claim does not require Shakespeare actually does, but in the secondary ed track.)

LP:  All schools with requirements in at least one track:  68 out of 120, or approximately 57%. (That's not counting one school's "Age of Shakespeare" course.)

Schools that didn't require Shakespeare of their regular "literature" majors frequently required it of their secondary education majors--probably in response to certification standards. 

21.5% to 57% is a noticeable increase, which suggests that any serious quantitative discussion requires far better sampling techniques than ACTA uses (or that I used, for that matter).  I'm sure that I could have obtained a different result by manipulating my search criteria.   

This increase also  reminds us of something that every instructor at a comprehensive college or smaller university knows perfectly well, but outside commentators insist on forgetting: that the curricula are usually much more traditional in nature.  Many such schools have teacher-training mandates as well, which leads me to the question of "children's literature."  It's not quite clear why the ACTA writers think college-level children's lit courses are a new thing, or why (believing so) they have suddenly felt the urge to complain about them; my mother, after all, enrolled in one at CSULA over thirty-five years ago when she was pregnant with yours truly.  More to the point, the ACTA writers eem not to have noticed that programs have to offer children's and young adult literature courses in order to be accredited for teacher certification.  The report treats departments as though they're floating in space, instead of responding to national, state, or university mandates.  Along the same lines, one might point out the obvious: if a college has, say, a diversity GE requirement, departments will do their best to offer such courses so as to maximize their FTEs.  (Hence, for example, the "Women in the Novel" course I teach every couple of years or so--it fulfills an upper-division GE requirement.) Show me the money.

I have additional criticisms of this report's arguments and methodology--for starters, their inability to actually justify why we should require, and not just teach, Shakespeare--but those will wait for a later post.

The following list includes every site that I visited, with the exceptions of the following: Albany State U (major requirements currently unavailable), Augusta State U (unable to download requirements), Bluefield State College (offers a literature minor only), Bowie State U (server down, apparently), Cal Poly Pomona (major requirements not listed), CSU Los Angeles (server problems), Central State University (major requirements not listed), Charter Oak State College (unable to download requirements), Dakota State U (unable to download requirements), Empire State College (major requirements not listed), Evergreen State College (non-traditional programs), Fairmont State U (major requirements not listed), Fitchburg State College (major requirements not listed), Golden State Baptist College (not a public university), Grambling State University (major requirements not listed), Keene State College (major requirements not listed), Lewis-Clark State College (major requirements not listed), Metropolitan State College of Denver (crashed my browser!), Mississippi Valley State University (major requirements did not appear when link was clicked), Morgan State U (department site did not load), Nicholls State U (major requirements not listed),  Pacific States U (not a public university), South Carolina State U (major requirements not listed), and Winston-Salem State U (major requirements not listed).  Some colleges no longer had functional websites. 

• Adams State College (Colorado): Shakespeare required in the liberal arts and secondary education tracks; not in the creative writing track. 
• Alabama State University (Alabama): Shakespeare required.
• Arizona State University (Arizona): Shakespeare required in the literature track; not in the creative writing track. 
  
• Arizona State University West (Arizona): Shakespeare required. 
• Arkansas State University (Arkansas): Shakespeare not required.
• Armstrong Atlantic State University (Georgia): Shakespeare required in the teacher certification track; not required in the English track or communications track.
• Athens State University (Alabama): Shakespeare required (click on appropriate link to view PDF file).
• Austin Peay State University (Tennessee): Shakespeare required in both the English and English leading to licensure tracks.
• Ball State University (Indiana): Shakespeare required in the English track of the teacher certification option; not required in the literature, rhetoric, or creative writing tracks. 
• Black Hills State University (South Dakota): Shakespeare required in the English and English Education tracks. 
• Boise State University (Idaho): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Bowling Green State University (Ohio): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Bridgewater State College (Massachusetts): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Buffalo State College (New York): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (California): Shakespeare required as part of the Renaissance core, but not as a single-author course.
• CSU Bakersfield (California): Shakespeare required in the teacher preparation track; not in the English track. 
• CSU Fullerton (California): Shakespeare required. 
• CSU Long Beach (California): Shakespeare required in the literature track; not in the rhetoric & composition track (same link, scroll down).
• CSU Northridge (California): Shakespeare required in the education track; not required in the literature, honors, or creative writing tracks.   
• Castleton State College (Vermont): Shakespeare required. 
• Central Connecticut State University (Connecticut): Shakespeare not required.
• Central Missouri State University (Missouri): Shakespeare required in the English track; not in the certification track.
• Chadron State College (Nebraska): Shakespeare required in all three tracks. 
• Chicago State University (Illinois): Shakespeare required in the literature and secondary education tracks; not in the professional writing track. 
• Colorado State University (Colorado): Shakespeare required in the literature track; not required in the education, language,  or creative writing tracks. 
• Columbus State University (Georgia): Shakespeare required in the literature and secondary education tracks; not required in the professional writing track. 
• Coppin State University (Maryland): Shakespeare required in the literature and teacher certification tracks; not required in the media arts track.
• Dickinson State University (North Dakota): Shakespeare required in the English track; not required in the writing track. 
• East Stroudsburg State University (Pennsylvania): Shakespeare required in the literature and secondary education tracks; not required in the writing track. 
• East Tennessee State University (Tennessee): Shakespeare not required.
• Eastern Connecticut State University (Connecticut): Shakespeare not required.
• Elizabeth City State University (North Carolina): Shakespeare required. 
• Emporia State University (Kansas): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Fayetteville State University (North Carolina): Shakespeare required. 
• Ferris State University (Michigan): Shakespeare required in the literature track; not required in the education track.   
• Florida State University (Florida): Shakespeare not required.
• Fort Hays State University (Kansas): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Framingham State College (Massachusetts): Shakespeare not required in any concentration.
• Georgia College & State University (Georgia): Shakespeare required in the literature and creative writing tracks; not required in the rhetoric track.
• Georgia Southwestern State University (Georgia): Shakespeare required in the literature and teacher certification tracks; not in the professional writing track.   
• Georgia State University (Georgia): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Glenville State College (West Virginia): Shakespeare required in the literature and education tracks. 
• Governors State University (Illinois): Shakespeare required. 
• Grand Valley State University (Michigan): Shakespeare required in the literature and secondary education tracks, but not in the elementary education track (click link for all three).
• Henderson State University (Arkansas): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Humboldt State University (California): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Idaho State University (Idaho): Shakespeare not required.
• Illinois State University (Illinois): Shakespeare not required.
• Indiana State University (Indiana): Shakespeare required in both the liberal arts and teaching tracks. 
• Iowa State University (Iowa): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Jacksonville State University (Alabama): Shakespeare required (it's 403 or 404).
• Kansas State University (Kansas): Shakespeare required in all three tracks.
• Kennesaw State University (Georgia): Shakespeare not required.
• Kent State University (Ohio): Shakespeare not required.
• Lake Superior State University (Michigan): Shakespeare not required.
• LSU Baton Rouge (Louisiana): Shakespeare not required.
• LSU Shreveport (Louisiana): Shakespeare required. 
• Lyndon State College (Vermont): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Mayville State University (North Dakota): Shakespeare required in the literature track, but not in the education track (click link for both). 
• Mesa State College (Colorado): Shakespeare required for the literature, teaching, and writing tracks.
• Michigan State University (Michigan): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Middle Tennessee State University (Tennessee): Shakespeare required in the secondary education track, but not in the literature track. 
• Midwestern State University (Texas): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Minnesota State University--Mankato (Minnesota): Shakespeare required in the literature track only.
• Minnesota State University--Moorhead (Minnesota): Shakespeare required in both the literature and writing tracks.
• Minot State University (North Dakota): An "Age of Shakespeare" course is required in all tracks.
• Mississippi State University (Mississippi): Shakespeare not required.
• Montana State University--Billings (Montana): Shakespeare required in the licensure track, but not the literature track. 
• Montana State University--Bozeman (Montana): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Montclair State University (New Jersey): Shakespeare not required in any track.
• Morehead State Univeristy (Kentucky): Shakespeare not required.
• New Mexico State University (New Mexico): Shakespeare required (408 or 409).
• Norfolk State University (Virginia):  Shakespeare required (sorry, only link available is to a massive PDF file).
• North Carolina State University (North Carolina):  Shakespeare not required in any track.
• North Dakota State University--Fargo (North Dakota): Shakespeare required.
• Northeastern State University (Oklahoma): Shakespeare not required.
• Northern State University (South Dakota): Shakespeare required in the English and secondary education tracks.
• Northwest Missouri State University (Missouri): Shakespeare required in all tracks.
• Northwestern Oklahoma State University (Oklahoma): Shakespeare required in both the literature and education tracks.
• Northwestern State University (Louisiana): Shakespeare not required.
• Oklahoma Panhandle State University (Oklahoma): Shakespeare not required.
• Oklahoma State University (Oklahoma): Shakespeare not required.
• Oregon State University (Oregon): Shakespeare required.
• Pennsylvania State University (Pennsylvania): Shakespeare not required.
• Peru State College (Nebraska): Shakespeare required.
• Pittsburg State University (Kansas): Shakespeare required in the education track; not in the literature track. 
• Plymouth State University (New Hampshire): Shakespeare not required.
• Portland State University (Oregon): Shakespeare not required.
• Saginaw Valley State University (Michigan): Shakespeare required in the secondary education track; not in the literature, creative writing, or professional writing tracks.
• Saint Cloud State University (Minnesota): Shakespeare required of students in the literature emphasis only.
• Sam Houston State University (Texas): Shakespeare not required.
• San Diego State University (California): Shakespeare required in the single subject certification track only (sorry, only link available is to massive PDF file).
• San Francisco State University (California): Shakespeare required.
• San Jose State University (California): Shakespeare required.
• Southeast Missouri State University (Missouri): Shakespeare not required.
• Southeastern Oklahoma State University (Oklahoma): Shakespeare required in both the literature and education tracks.
• Southwestern Oklahoma State University (Oklahoma): Shakespeare not required.
• SUNY Oswego (New York): Shakespeare required for certification in adolescent education only.
• SUNY Brockport (New York): Shakespeare required in the literature track, but not the creative writing track.
• SUNY Cortland (New York): Shakespeare required in the adolescent education track; not required in the literature track.
• SUNY Geneseo (New York): Shakespeare required in the literature track only.
• SUNY New Paltz (New York): Shakespeare required in both the literature and creative writing tracks.
• Stephen F. Austin State University (Texas): Shakespeare required.
• Sul Ross State University (Texas): Shakespeare required.
• Tarleton State University (Texas): Shakespeare not required.
• Tennessee State University (Tennessee): Shakespeare required.
• Thomas Edison State College (New Jersey): Shakespeare not required.
• Truman State University (Missouri): Shakespeare not required.
• Utah State University (Utah): Shakespeare required in the literary studies and English teaching emphases; not the creative writing or professional writing emphases.
• Utah Valley State College (Utah): Shakespeare not required.
• Washington State University (Washington): Shakespeare required.
• Wayne State College (Nebraska): Shakespeare required in the literature and subject endorsement tracks, but not in creative writing.
• Wayne State University (Michigan): Shakespeare not required.
• Weber State University (Utah): Shakespeare not required.
• Western Connecticut State University (Connecticut): Shakespeare not required.
• Western State College (Colorado): Shakespeare not required.
• Westfield State College (Massachusetts): Shakespeare required in the literature, teacher licensure, and theatre tracks; not required in the creative writing track.
• Wichita State University (Kansas): Shakespeare required in the education track; not required in the literature or creative writing tracks.
• Wright State University (Ohio): Shakespeare not required.
• Youngstown State University (Ohio): Shakespeare not required.

Comments

[CJColucci]

It's probably too much work for anyone to do, but in my limited experience as a non-English major, I found it hard to avoid Shakespeare (which I wasn't interested in doing) except in courses limited by time (19th century) or geography (American). My college's English department (SUNY Buffalo) did require Shakespeare for majors, and it was a popular course for non-majors. Many survey courses included Shakespeare, and genre courses -- they offered Tragedy, Comedy, and Satire as separate courses -- and several theater-oriented courses included Shakespeare. I suspect that even in places where Shakespeare is not required, it would take a lot of work for an English major to avoid substantial exposure to him, but testing that would involve real inquiry.

[Laura Little]

Just one correction: Glenvillle State College is in West Virginia, not Illinois.

[Rebecca]

I suppose another question ACTA should have asked is, "how many English majors at elite and non-elite institutions *take* a Shakespeare class even when it is not required?"

[professor.elliott]

It is very impressive you took the time to do this research; I hope that this gets as many hits as it deserves. The rhetoric and logic of the ACTA report is so tired that it is hard to take seriously, but we should. As Rebecca suggests, a very good question would be to find out how many English majors are actually taking Shakespeare. Enrollment numbers do matter if you are interested in measuring patterns of eduction. For instance, I imagine that many of the classes that ACTA believes to be beyond the pale are small, elective seminars. I know that the classes cited from my institution are of that kind, where as survey classes in British and American literature (which are presumably acceptable, even if they are not always about Shakespeare all the time) are much larger, and upper-level classes defined by traditional literary period (including, yes, the Shakespeare classes) are of medium size.

I am looking forward to reading your post about the justification for requirements. I think there is room for serious intellectual disagreement there. But the authors of the ACTA report do not seem very interested in that kind of exchange.

[The Constructivist]

I can report that SUNY Fredonia strongly recommends that its Adolescence Education majors take a Shakespeare course for their Major Authors requirement. And that we regularly teach Shakespeare in many places in our curriculum, not just in Major Authors courses.

[Hannah]

This is a big deal in my department at the moment actually. I go to a British Uni about 25 miles from Stratford and home to several fairly prominent Shakespeare scholars, as a third year "Pure" English Lit student I have no choice but to take the Shakespeare course, nor do the PhilLit, FilmLit, ForeignLanguageLit or Creative WriterLit students. For some unknown reason the AmericanLit lot don't have to take Shakespeare, they can if they want, but they don't have to.

Next year however, no one will have to. People come to study English here because we have the connection to the RSC, to the Birmingham Shakespeare Institute. We spend a lot of money each year on a centre to bring Shakespeare and performance together. The idea of suddenly making it non-compulsory is deeply bizarre. Especially when Epic Tradition (Homer, Virgil, Milton) and Chaucer and the Gawain Poet are mandatory in 1st year. It becomes even more odd when you consider that we don't study Shakespeare until the 3rd year. He's been known to crop up in the 1st year critical theory module when talking about metatheatre, but that's not every year. So third year "Shakespeare and Selected Dramatists" is the main Shakespeare course - we have a couple of odd little extra ones, but they again can only be taken as a 3rd year - and the idea of making it non-compulsory makes me want to cry.

I want to believe people will still take it in huge numbers, but on paper it comes off as a fairly unattractive course. No one thinks "Wow! Two Shakespeare plays a week! Sign me up!" so there's a big chance of people defecting to the novel courses, or the one on Eliot. And that strikes me as sad. Not only because we have a phenomenal department for Shakespeare, but also because I really do think that Shakespeare should be one of the cornerstones of the English Lit BA course.

[Bourgeois Nerd]

Brava, Little Proffessor, for the research! Show them how it's done!

And I echo other commenters' in really questioning whether not having Shakespeare REQUIRED means that people don't TAKE Shakespeare anyway. I went to a suburban state school (though one without "State" in its name) and we had to take a Shakespeare I class, but a lot of people took Shakespeare II, which wasn't required, anyway. Shocking as it may be, but English majors tend to actually LIKE Shakespeare, regardless of its status in the curriculum.

[Z]

Thanks for this great post. I teach Shakespeare at one of the schools (Penn) on ACTA's list, and we do not require Shakespeare for our English major. Not technically, at least.

BUT: we do require chronological distribution, which involves one lower-level course in pre-1640 literature and one seminar in pre-1700 literature. In practice, these requirements alone mean (I suspect) that virtually all of our majors take a course with at least some Shakespeare in it.

Second, we have many, many students who take Shakespeare outside of these requirements, as well as non-majors who want to take Shakespeare. I taught a freshman seminar this semester with Shakespeare in the title, and it was the highest enrolled of any of the freshman seminars I heard about. (This is strictly due to the course title, because I'm new at Penn and no one knows me, and the students were first-years in any case.)

At my old institution (U of Illinois), Shakespeare *was* required for the major, and was constantly overbooked.

There are several good reasons I can think of why many schools no longer actively require "Shakespeare" per se for their major, none of which involves any desire for students to take less Shakespeare:

1) Courses called "Shakespeare" have shifted from the major to the gen ed part of the curriculum, because they are guaranteed to enroll huge numbers and thus bring money to the department;

2) Shakespeare requirements have been removed from the major because departments can count on students taking Shakespeare anyway, and the requirements are often used to force students to take courses in those areas that they are least likely to want to study if left to their own devices--ie, there is no reason to require Shakespeare; I suspect this is the main reason at most schools that have dropped their requirement;

3) Shakespeare is increasingly being taught in courses that do not have his name in the title and hence probably escape ACTA's blinkered eye (e.g., Drama of the English Renaissance; Tragedy; English Literature from Chaucer to Milton; etc)

Hopefully this report will be ignored as the shoddy polemic it is, but somehow I doubt it...

[Z]

Hannah: My experience has actually been that (American) college students do, in fact, say "Wow! Two Shakespeare plays a week! Sign me up!" (Well, maybe not in those exact words...) Our big Shakespeare lecture consistently enrolls over 100 students (quite big for my school), and it's not required for anyone.

[Marya]

Note also the responsible method of proving statements like "they are studying everything BUT great literature" by listing a bunch of course titles that aren't about Great Books. Perhaps the authors should be recommending a course in argumentation.

Anyway, one does tire of hearing Shakespeare used as some kind of freestanding indicator of literary knowledge. I didn't take any Shakespeare as an undergrad myself, but I did read Pope, Johnson, Spenser, Sidney, Chaucer, all the Big Six Romantics, and a host of minor figures and managed to pull top scores on the literature GRE. Most kids read Shakespeare in high school, don't they? But if they don't, are they going to be transformed into literati by one required course, or is it that there's some essential value or truth that is conveyed by Shakespeare, and only by Shakespeare, and moreover resides in every one of his plays? Sheesh.

[Hannah]

Z: That's reassuring to hear. I kind of did say "Wow! ..." when I heard about the course, as did most of my friends, but I know a few people who were put off by the idea. I don't think enrollment on the course will really drop very much when it's non compulsory, there is a certain sense that you *should* study Shakespeare at some point in an Eng Lit degree after all, but it saddens me that it's going to be a choice.

[Z]

(adding...)

Another reason schools have dropped Shakespeare, I suspect, is illustrated by the difference between the two schools I've taught at, one of which requires Shakespeare for the major (in a class of 36 maximum) and the other of which does not. At the public university that requires Shakespeare, we needed to teach a total of 9 sections per year to give all the majors a chance of fulfilling the requirement--that's about 330 students per year. Since this was a course in the major, only tenure-track faculty were able to teach it. So this required a huge number of Renaissance faculty--when I arrived there were something like 8 tenure-track faculty in the Renaissance. Most departments are 1) unwilling and 2) unable to devote so much of their resources to supporting a huge cadre of faculty in one period like that.

I suspect, therefore, that many schools that require a dedicated Shakespeare class for the major, and that have a substantial number of majors, are either 1) staffing those courses with adjuncts or grad students; 2) teaching them in huge lectures; or 3) staffing them with faculty who are not Shakespeareans. I imagine that all three of these options turn up in other ACTA reports or the reports of similar advocacy groups as "problems": our children are being taught by grad students! our children are being taught in huge, anonymous lectures! our children are being taught by people who don't know what they're talking about but presume to be "specialists" in every subject! etc. etc.

[R]

Maybe this only accounts for a few schools, but I also doubt ACTA took into account schools that have no requirements or core curricula. (Though I'm sure they'd see that as a problem of another kind.)

There's actually a footnote on page 10 of that survey that says that they're deliberately *not* counting schools that have requirements in medieval and/or Renaissance English literature, because there's no guarantee that Shakespeare will be covered (ha!), or that he will be covered in depth. Which is ridiculous.

[R]

Although maybe my favorite bit is the affronted way they argue that at many schools, a class on Shakespeare "may count the same as" a class on Renaissance food or "medieval writing on flogging, stabbing, and rape." Because Shakespeare, of course, never wrote about any of those things.

[Hannah]

R: entertainingly, the second year required "C17 Literature" course in the English course at my uni, doesn't cover Shakespeare. Deliberately. Of course, this is a degree course in England where no one takes courses outside the department, and (up until now) Shakespeare has been required in the 3rd year.

[CCPhysicist]

You should publish this research. It is certainly better done than ACTA, and shows just how little effort they put into their report. They probably spent more time writing and publicizing it than they did researching it.

[Josh]

Great work! I despair when I recall that this is ACTA. Timothy Burke and Michael Bérubé have done great analyses of how their arguments operate. Memorably, Anne Neal, when told here at Temple that there were almost no student complaints about "Liberal Bias," took it as proof that PA needed an "Academic Bill of Rights": the students were obviously too intimdated to stand up for themselves!