Academic Department

The Academic Department is the primary administrative division of faculty and course of study at Knox. There are eighteen academic departments in all.

Departments, Courses of Study, and Faculty

Together, the eighteen departments offer 30 majors and 39 minors and (as of 14 July 2007) comprise approximately 120 faculty members (including professors, instructors, lecturers, and so on).

These, however, do not represent all courses of study or faculty members at Knox. A number of interdisciplinary programs, for instance the Black Studies Program, have majors, minors, and courses of study of their own, generally of a nature which would not fit neatly into any one department. Most of the faculty forming the program committees for these are at least nominally rooted in one of the departments, but there are several exceptions for professors hired specifically for interdisciplinary programs (for instance in Black Studies, Environmental Science, and Biochemistry). Many academic departments have cooperating faculty from other departments or programs that will teach some courses (these are often cross-listed).

Often there are restrictions on the double-counting of courses between departmental and related interdisciplinary majors.

Department Size

In order, the nine largest departments by faculty member count are:

1. Modern Languages and Literatures Department (16)
2. English Department (11)
3. Music Department (10)
4. Anthropology and Sociology Department (8)
5. Four-way tie (7):
   1. Art Department
   2. Educational Studies Department
   3. Political Science and International Relations Department
   4. Psychology Department