Dancing through the library

Universities across the country are confronting declining enrollments in humanities fields such as history, literature, and philosophy. At the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, the English department is taking an intriguing approach to the crisis: Lace up your dancing shoes!

Over Valentine’s weekend, the department sponsored not one but two Regency balls in the university’s Collegiate Gothic-style library, complete with live music, a dance caller, and a costumes-encouraged-but-not-required policy. Proceeds from the modest ticket price went toward scholarships for first-year English majors.

The department held its first-ever Regency ball in 2017, the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death, as part of an author festival focused on her work. Revived last year, in the wake of Netflix’s hit Regency romance series Bridgerton, the ball sold out, and organizers now hope to make it an annual event.

"Reading is kind of a solitary act, and the ball really allows us to see how much we share this with other people−this love for these texts and for this period that Austen’s novels take us to,” associate professor Gerard Cohen-Vrignaud, a scholar of Romanticism, told the local newspaper. "We think that fanhood−literary fanhood−is an important aspect of literature, and we think it’s a way for us to connect to readers past and present and future.”

Cohen-Vrignaud may be onto something. Elegant ballgowns and beautiful music will probably not be enough to lure students back to the humanities, but the pleasure of community? That just might do it.