We invite activists and teacher-scholars to a 2-part virtual discussion about the new book Contingent Faculty and the Remaking of Higher Education: A Labor History (2024).
Session 1: Thursday, February 15, 2024, 7:30-9pm ET/6:30-8pm CT/5:30-7pm MT/4:30-6pm PT
- Presentations by three contributors to the book (Gary Rhoades, Aimee Loiselle, and Anne McLeer), along with discussion about the causes, consequences, and strategies for challenging labor contingency in higher ed.
Session II: Thursday, March 14, 2024, 7:30-9pm ET/6:30-8pm CT/5:30-7pm MT/4:30-6pm PT
- Responses to the book including in-depth participant and audience discussion about current campaigns and next steps in the fight for fair working conditions and reclaiming higher education’s public purpose.
Each session will include an opening panel followed by break-out room discussions, to enable broad participation, and report-backs to the group.
These sessions are sponsored by Higher Education Labor United (HELU), Center for the Study of Academic Labor (CSAL), and the Contingent & Community College Faculty and Independent Scholars Committee of the Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA).
Contingent Faculty and the Remaking of Higher Education: A Labor History (edited by Eric Fure-Slocum and Claire Goldstene) draws on a wide range of perspectives to examine the realities of the contingent faculty system through the lens of labor history. Essayists investigate structural changes that have caused the use of contingent faculty to skyrocket and illuminate how precarity shapes day-to-day experiences in the academic workplace. Other essays delve into the ways contingent faculty have engaged in collective action and other means to resist austerity measures, improve their working conditions, and instigate reforms in higher education. By challenging contingency, this volume issues a clear call to reclaim higher education’s public purpose.
To order the book, visit the University of Illinois Press site and use the code F23UIP for a 30% discount, Amazon.com (discounted Kindle version), or independent bookstores.
“Fure-Slocum and Goldstene chronicle the contingent faculty labor movement in all its creativity and diversity. This collection moves past mere description of the neoliberal academy and the plight of contingent campus workers to weave together analyses, personal narrative, and tactical guidance on organizing in the gig economy while calling for a renewed commitment to cross-rank and cross-campus solidarity among academic workers.” Julie Schmid, Senior Director, Higher Education, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
“A book that we have long awaited and needed. Nothing else offers such a broad sweep of perspectives and such a deep historical appreciation of the struggles of contingent academic labor. Anyone interested in the future of higher education, the future of work and workers, or the future of our democracy should read this important book.” Joseph A. McCartin, coeditor of Purple Power: The History and Global Impact of SEIU
Higher education has become Uber! Contingent faculty do most of the teaching, at low pay, while full-time faculty enjoy ridiculously low teaching loads and much higher pay. The whole nature of higher education has changed, and now needs to change once again.