Journalist – Historian – Speaker
There is power in a factory, power in the land Power in the hands of a worker But it all amounts to nothing if together we don’t stand There is power in a Union. Just in the last few weeks, the rhetoric of the adjunct crisis in American Higher Education has shifted, intensifying around the …
Apparently it’s a write-about-writing week so far on the blog. I really like Rebecca Schuman. This week, she has a call out for why academic rejection hurts more than other kinds of rejection. If it does for you, you should go give her your story, as she curates data well and writes beautiful polemics on …
This is my first attempt to generalize some guidelines for talking about people with less power than yourself, especially when trying to highlight an injustice that you, to some extent, are responsible for perpetuating. Almost a year ago, I wrote a piece on how to talk about feminism if you’re a guy (especially a straight …
Adjuncts are Labor. Professors are Labor. Graduate Students are Labor. Staff are Labor. Administrators, well, that’s more complicated. What’s a “Chair” anyway? More on that later (and in the meantime follow that link for a good piece on definitions). I am going to be writing regular columns for the Chronicle and Chronicle Vitae over the …
Yesterday I followed a tweet from New Faculty Majority to Academe Blog (from but not speaking for the AAUP) – and read a startling set of statistics. I posted this tweet: Since 1976 – 23% growth FT fac. 269% growth in PT fac. 369% growth in admin. MT @NewFacMajority: http://t.co/duHV4Eg7da #highered #adjuncts — David M. …
I’m writing a piece on the ways that Catholic Colleges and Universities, especially my own, are helping undocumented students. The help comes in three ways: Money for tuition/expenses, changing discourse, and political action. What I’m really interested in for this piece is the link between mission and policy changes. One piece that has emerged is …
Jordan Weissmann, Slate columnist on business and education, is really happy that your small private college might be closing. Here’s why: These are agonizing times for small, private colleges. Enrollment is falling. Debts are rising. Tuition is high as it can go. And since the financial crisis, schools have been shuttering more often than normal….“What we’re …
In a few minutes, I am going to be one of six academic parents – but the only man – speaking at panel on academic parenthood at the Medieval Academy of America annual conference. The panel is sponsored by the graduate student association of the MAA, and I was very honored when they invited me …
Over the past few years, a number of books and essays linking adjuncts to other historically oppressed peoples have been published. I’m writing an essay on the topic (that’s largely critical). Here’s some of the material with which I’m working, starting with the most recent. Equality for Contingent Faculty: Overcoming the Two-Tier System, edited by …
A few weeks ago a friend alerted me to a job ad for a Renaissance/Early Modern English professor at Texas A&M – Kingsville (TAMUK). The job summary read: PROVIDE EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE. I reacted (with some hyperbole) with a blog piece about why the retail model of customer service, in particular, didn’t serve the students …