This book presents an overview of the context and work conditions of contingent faculty in higher education. It addresses questions related to the ways in which faculty theorize about contingent academic labor, and under what conditions they are able to unite, organize, and constitute an opposition to management.

An educational crisis from its origins to present-day experiences In the United States today, almost three-quarters of the people teaching in two- and four-year colleges and universities work as contingent faculty. They share the hardships endemic in the gig economy: lack of job security and health care, professional disrespect, and poverty wages that require them to juggle multiple jobs. This collection 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 engage 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. Interdisciplinary in approach and multifaceted in perspective, Contingent Faculty and the Remaking of Higher Education surveys the adjunct system and its costs. Contributors: Gwendolyn Alker, Diane Angell, Joe Berry, Sue Doe, Eric Fure-Slocum, Claire Goldstene, Trevor Griffey, Erin Hatton, William A. Herbert, Elizabeth Hohl, Miguel Juárez, Aimee Loiselle, Maria C. Maisto, Anne McLeer, Steven Parfitt, Jiyoon Park, Claire Raymond, Gary Rhoades, Jeff Schuhrke, Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, Steven Shulman, Joseph van der Naald, Anne Wiegard, Naomi R Williams, and Helena Worthen

This edited volume connects the origins of US higher education during the Colonial Era with current systemic characteristics that maintain white supremacist structures and devalue students and faculty of color, as well as areas of study that interrogate Whiteness. The authors examine power structures within the academy that scaffold Whiteness and promote inequality at all levels by maintaining a two-tier faculty system and a dearth of Faculty and Administrators of Color. Finally, contributors offer systemic and collective solutions toward a more equitable redistribution of power, primarily among faculty and administration, through which other inequities may be identified and more easily addressed.

The third edition of Organizational Theory in Higher Education is a comprehensive and accessible treatment of organizational theory and higher education administration. Through her presentation of both traditional and contemporary organizational theories, noted scholar Kathleen Manning offers a multi-faceted take on the models and lenses through which higher education can be viewed. Chapters discuss the disciplinary foundation, uses, constructs, and assumptions of each organizational theory, including theories often excluded from the literature like organized anarchy, feminist, loosely coupled systems, and queer theory. Each chapter concludes with a case study and discussion questions that encourage the reader to make connections to their practice. Combining theory and practice, Manning’s rich, interdisciplinary treatment enables leaders to gain a fuller understanding of the perspectives that operate on college campuses and ways to enact inclusive, ethical change in the context of new and continuing challenges. New to this Edition: A new chapter on Queer Theory that presents more socially just approaches to institutional organization A new chapter on Loosely Coupled Systems presenting the application of this theory to higher education settings Revised chapters, updated theory, and new coverage that reflect current issues, such as pandemic, crisis responses, and social media Several new and revised case studies to address contemporary issues and align with current realities of higher education Updated and enhanced discussion questions to continue the conversation

Reclaiming the Ivory Tower examines the situation of adjunct professors in U.S. higher education today, describes the process of organizing them to improve their conditions of work, and puts forward an agenda around which adjunct labor can mobilize and transform the universities. In the last twenty years, higher education in the United States has been eroded by massive reliance on temporary academic labor—professors without tenure or prospect of tenure, without benefits, working without offices or research assistance, often commuting between several campuses, and paid a fraction of the salaries of the tenured colleagues. Contingent faculty now constitutes the majority of faculty at U.S. colleges and universities. Analyzing the changing composition of the academic workforce, assessing the strength of new organizing initiatives among adjuncts, and weighing up their strategic options, this is the most comprehensive and engaged account to date of an issue that will become increasingly important for the future of higher education in the United States and in the global context.

This volume is written as a treatise to dismantle the powers of discriminatory incubuses that have haunted institutions of higher learning, one narrative at a time.

Contributors argue that the key to innovative teaching and scholarship lies in institutional support for the contingent labor force, and they encourage contingent faculty to organize self-mentoring groups, create venues for learning/disseminating their experiences and findings, and connect scholarship to service and teaching in novel ways.