The Crisis in the Humanities Is Not About Money
27th June 2026
Did the humanities go woke because they went broke? That scenario has become one of the more persuasive explanations for the present crisis in the humanities. As their enrolments declined and federal funding shrank, and universities began sending money (and, thus, prestige) toward STEM and professional programs, the humanities went looking for support wherever they could find it. If serious funders wanted academic work to be framed in the language of social justice, then scholars were willing to adapt accordingly. Tyler Austin Harper recently made this case in The Atlantic, arguing that what looked like ideological capture may, in fact, be economic desperation.