Imponiendo la precariedad: maquinaciones burocráticas, complicidad y jerarquías de la Academia

Vasiliki Touhouliotis

doi:10.3989/rdtp.2018.01.001.04

Authors

Vasiliki Touhouliotis https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4511-922X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/rdtp.2018.01.001.04

Keywords:

Precarity, Adjunct, United States, Academic Hierarchies, Complicity, Refusal

Abstract

Adjunct is the term used in the United States to refer to the contingent instructors that work in higher education with poor pay, no benefits and short-term contracts. Adjuncts now make up the majority of the teaching professoriate at United States colleges and universities. Drawing on three years’ experience working as an adjunct, the author offers an account of precarity in academia in the United States. While academic precarity is often assumed to affect all adjuncts equally, race, gender and class in fact lead to an uneven distribution, rendering certain bodies precarious even when they do not comprise adjuncts or contingent laborers. This makes it imperative to recognise that academic precarity encompasses a range of often incommensurable experiences. At the same time, discussions of precarity often overlook the complicity of full-time faculty staff and administrators who enforce precarity and reproduce hierarchies of academic lives by keeping adjuncts closed off from university resources and by asking them to work without compensation. How might a collective refusal of the reproduction of academic hierarchies be practiced without being depicted as evidence of not caring enough about our work? And how might such a refusal be a strategy for demanding better working conditions for all?

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Alvarez, Maximillian. 2017. «Contingent No More: An Academic Manifesto». The Baffler May 3. Available at: https://thebaffler.com/the-poverty-of-theory/contingent-no-more. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

American Association of University Professors. 2017. «Visualizing Change: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2016-17». Available at: https://www.aaup.org/report/visualizing-change-annual-report-economic-status-profession-2016-17. Access date: 17 April 2018.

Attewell, Nadine. 2016. «Not the Asian You Had in Mind: Race, Precarity, and Academic Labor». English Language Notes 54(2):183-90.

Betensky, Carolyn. 2017. «“Tenured Allies” and the Normalization of Contingent Labor». Academe 103(5). Available at: https://www.aaup.org/article/tenured-allies-and-normalization-contingentlabor#.Weu0m2hSy71. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

Birmingham, Kevin. 2017. «“The Great Shame of Our Profession”». The Chronicle of Higher Education Feb. 12. Available at: http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Great-Shame-of-Our/239148. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

Bousquet, Marc. 2014. «Offensive Letter Justifies Oppressive System That Hurts Both Faculty and Students». The Chronicle of Higher Education Aug. 29. Available at: http://www.chronicle.com/article/Dont-Let-Adjunct-Bashing-Go/148551. Access date: 17 April 2018.

Brown, Peter D.G. 2010. «Confessions of a Tenured Professor». Inside Higher Ed May 11. Available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/05/11/confessions-tenured-professor. Access date: 17 April 2018.

Brown, Wendy. 2015. Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution. New York: Zone Books.

Chomsky, Noam. 2014. «The Death of American Universities». Jacobin Mar. 3. Available at: http://jacobinmag.com/2014/03/the-death-of-american-universities/. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

Cottom, Tressie McMillan. 2014. «The New Old Labor Crisis». Slate Jan. 24. Available at: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/counter_narrative/2014/01/adjunct_crisis_in_higher_ed_an_all_too_familiar_story_for_black_faculty.html. Access date: 17 April 2018.

Daniel, Malini Cadambi. 2016. «Contingent Faculty of the World Unite! Organizing to Resist the Corporatization of Higher Education». New Labor Forum Apr. 28. Available at: http://newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2016/04/28/unite-to-resist-the-corporatization-of-education/. Access date:

Apr. 2018.

Ferguson, Jade. 2013. «We Are Not All Jims: The Colour Line and Sadness in the University». Hook & Eye: Fast Feminism, Slow Academe. Blog. Apr. 8. Available at: https://hookandeye.ca/2013/04/08/guest-post-we-are-not-all-jims-the-colour-line-and-sadness-in-the-university/. Access date:

April 2018.

Flaherty, Colleen. 2016. «Study Finds Gains in Faculty Diversity, but Not on the Tenure Track». Inside Higher Ed Aug. 22. Available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/08/22/studyfinds-gains-faculty-diversity-not-tenure-track. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

Gibney, Shannon and Anonymous. 2012. «I Ain’t Your Girl: Controlling Identities and Acts of Isolation in the Academy». The Feminist Wire Nov. 8. Available at: http://www.thefeministwire.com/2012/11/i-aint-your-girl-controlling-identities-and-acts-of-isolation-in-the-academy/. Access date:

Apr. 2018.

Hoeller, Keith. 2014. «The Wal-Mart-Ization of Higher Education: How Young Professors Are Getting Screwed». Salon Feb. 16. Available at: https://www.salon.com/2014/02/16/the_wal_mart_ization_of_higher_education_how_young_professors_are_getting_screwed/. Access

date: 17 Apr. 2018.

Kahle, Trish and Michael Billeaux. 2015. «Resisting the Corporate University». Jacobin, Sep. 28. Available at: http://jacobinmag.com/2015/09/graduate-workers-university-missouri-mizzou-scott-walkerwisconsin-unions-labor/. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

Kendzior, Sarah. 2013. «Academia’s Indentured Servants». Al Jazeera English Apr. 11. Available at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/04/20134119156459616.html. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

Kendzior, Sarah. 2014. «The Adjunct Crisis Is Everyone’s Problem». ChronicleVitae Oct. 17. Available at: https://chroniclevitae.com/news/762-the-adjunct-crisis-is-everyone-s-problem. Access date: 17 April 2018.

Kendzior, Sarah. 2015. «Academia’s 1 Percent». ChronicleVitae Mar. 6. Available at: https://chroniclevitae.com/news/929-academia-s-1-percent. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

McKenna, Laura. 2015. «The Cost of an Adjunct». The Atlantic May 26. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/05/the-cost-of-an-adjunct/394091/. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

Neff, Ali Colleen. 2017. «On Academic Precarity». Ali Colleen Neff. Blog. Nov. 8. Available at: http://www.alicolleenneff.com/blog/2017/11/8/on-academic-precarity. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

Potter, Claire B. 2017. «Angry about Adjuncting? Why Adjuncts Should Quit Complaining and Just Quit». Inside Higher Ed Oct. 16. Available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/10/16/why-adjuncts-should-quit-complaining-and-just-quit-essay. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

Riederer, Rachel. 2014. «The Teaching Class». Guernica Jun. 16. Available at: https://www.guernicamag.com/the-teaching-class/. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

Schwartz, Joseph M. 2014. «Resisting the Exploitation of Contingent Faculty Labor in the Neoliberal University: The Challenge of Building Solidarity between Tenured and Non-Tenured Faculty». New Political Science 36(4): 504-522. https://doi.org/10.1080/07393148.2014.954803

Silva, Liana M. 2015. «How Many Women Are Adjuncts Out There?». ChronicleVitae May 27. Available at: https://chroniclevitae.com/news/1017-how-many-women-are-adjuncts-out-there. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

Swidler, Eva. 2016. «Can the Adjunct Speak? Precarity and Academic Unfreedom». Academe 102(5). Available at: https://www.aaup.org/article/can-adjunct-speak#.Weuy_GhSy70. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

Weissmann, Jordan. 2013. «The Ever-Shrinking Role of Tenured College Professors (in 1 Chart)». The Atlantic Apr. 10. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-evershrinking-role-of-tenured-college-professors-in-1-chart/274849/. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.

Wunker, Erin. 2013. «A New Politics of Loss? A Response to “We Are Not All Jims: The Colour Line and Sadness in the Academy”». Hook & Eye: Fast Feminism, Slow Academe. Blog. Apr. 15. Available at: https://hookandeye.ca/2013/04/15/a-new-politics-of-loss-a-response-to-we-are-not-all-jimsthe-colour-line-and-sadness-in-the-academy/. Access date: 17 Apr. 2018.