Anna Kornbluh, Professor of English at University of Illinois Chicago and Delegate to HELU from UIC United Faculty Local 6456
Understanding institutions, budgets, political power, and cultural trends is often necessary for effective contract proposals and negotiations. Some faculty specialize in accounting, some study higher education governance, some track rhetorical and creative representations and perceptions of intellectuals – and some do nothing of the sort. The UIC United Faculty (one union, TT and NTT) Committee on Political Education works to educate bargaining unit members of every flavor of expertise, as well as the university at large and the broader community, about dynamics that shape and constrain our working conditions, bringing research to bear on strategy.
At the launch of our latest contract campaign, we partnered with the Inter Chicago Circle for Experimental Critical Theory to host a conversation among scholars of education policy, 21stcentury technology, critical theory of finance, and the history of capitalism, so that theory could inform our approaches to key issues like pedagogical independence, ed tech partnerships, and data security. The conversation was recorded live on December 4th 2025 by The American Vandal, the podcast of The Center for Mark Twain Studies. The podcast has brought big ideas in literary criticism, cultural history, political theory, and critical university studies to a staggeringly wide audience over the past 5.5 years, rising to join the top 5% of most downloaded podcasts in the world.
This episode, “Theory at the Bargaining Table”, features Professor Dominique Baker, Professor Matt Seybold, and Professor Anna Kornbluh, and has the most 30-day downloads of any single episode in the history of the show – a threshold reached in only 14 days. It is striking a chord, and we hope it proves useful to HELU newsletter readers strategizing their way to a better university for everybody.
The transcript is also available to be read.