Claire Major, PhD is a Professor of Higher Education at the University of Alabama. Early in her career, she taught more than forty sections of English, including developmental studies, freshman composition, and sophomore literature. During this time she worked at two-year institutions; including a two-year historically black college, a two-year technical institution, and a large urban community college; and four-year institutions, including a comprehensive university and a large research university. After completing her Ph.D., she worked as director of a center for teaching at a small private four-year religious institution.

Now at the University of Alabama, she teaches masters and doctoral level courses in the Higher Education Administration program. She also conducts research on pedagogical approaches and student engagement and learning. She has authored and co-authored several books, including three with Elizabeth Barkley published in the Wiley/Jossey Bass College Teaching Techniques series:  Interactive Lecturing, Learning Assessment Techniques, and Collaborative Learning Techniques. She has also published Online learning: A guide to theory, research, and practice, Teaching for Learning (with Michael Harris and Todd Zakrajsek) and Qualitative research: The essential guide to theory and practice (with Maggi Savin-Baden).