Book Description

This book addresses the counterproductive conditions in which part-time and non-tenure-track composition faculty must teach, using case studies, local narratives, and models for ethical employment practices. It presents and evaluates a range of proactive strategies for change, both for local conditions and broader considerations. Section 1, Transforming the Cultural and Material Conditions of Contingent Writing Faculty: The Personal and the Institutional, includes the following 5 chapters: (1) "Shadows of the Mountain" (Chris M. Anson and Richard Jewell); (2) "Non-Tenure-Track Instructors at UALR: Breaking Rules, Splitting Departments" (Barry M. Maid); (3) "The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: One Version of the 'Humane' Lectureship" (Eva Brumberger); (4) "The Material and the Cultural as Interconnected Texts: Revising Material Conditions for Part-Time Faculty at Syracuse University" (Carol Lipson and Molly Voorheis); and (5) "Trafficking in Freeway Flyers: (Re)Viewing Literacy, Working Conditions, and Quality Instruction" (Helen O'Grady). Section 2, Collectivity and Change in Non-Tenure-Track Employment: Collective Bargaining, Coalition Building, and Community Organizing, contains the following 6 chapters: (6) "The Real Scandal in Higher Education" (Walter Jacobsohn); (7) "Faculty at the Crossroads: Making the Part-Time Problem a Full-Time Focus" (Karen Thompson); (8) "How Did We Get in This Fix? A Personal Account of the Shift to a Part-Time Faculty in a Leading Two-Year College District" (John C. Lovas); (9) "A Place to Stand: The Role of Unions in the Development of Writing Programs" (Nicholas Tingle and Judy Kirscht); (10) "Same Struggle, Same Fight: A Case Study of University Students and Faculty United in Labor Activism" (Elana Peled, Diana Hines, Michael John Martin, Anne Stafford, Brian Strang, Mary Winegarden, and Melanie Wise); and (11) "Climbing a Mountain: An Adjunct Steering Committee Brings Change to Bowling Green State University's English Department" (Debra A. Benko). Section 3, Rethinking Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Roles and Rewards, contains the following 3 chapters: (12) "Distance Education: Political and Professional Agency for Adjunct and Part-Time Faculty, and GTAs" (Danielle DeVoss, Dawn Hayden, Cynthia L. Selfe, and Richard J. Selfe, Jr.); (13) "The Scholarship of Teaching: Contributions from Contingent Faculty" (Patricia Lambert Stock, Amanda Brown, David Franke, and John Starkweather); and (14) "What's the Bottom-Line? Literacy and Quality Education in the Twenty-First Century" (Eileen E. Schell). Contains over 800 references, including the appendix: "Select Bibliography: Contingent Labor Issues in Composition Studies and Higher Education" (Margaret M. Cunniffe and Eileen E. Schell), which consists of approximately 600 items. (EF)