<p>I tried to find out, purely by numbers, where the history department stood relative to its peers. Smith has 22 history faculty (13 full-time tenure-track, 7 lecturers - some of whom will become tenure track, and 2 in the History of Science - I am not counting those in Women’s studies, or area studies, and not counting emeriti. And not accounting for 5-college professors/offerings.) With a larger number of history majors, Colgate has 19, Williams 21, Amherst 17 (though quite a few are area studies or women’s studies, so that number is actually lower); Swarthmore has 10. </p>
<p>So I suspect there are indeed holes, but it isn’t due to the number of professors, or the number of majors, but specific course distribution. There are 5-College Certificate programs in Middle Eastern, African, (I think) Latin American studies, and International Relations that triple the offerings in each of these areas. I imagine there still might be holes, but lack of faculty size or cutbacks would not be suitable explanation.</p>