The Adjunct Life

[downer]

Maybe suggest that they just provide a link to Rate My Professor dot com?

I checked my RMP for that school, where I have taught for 3 years now. Not a single rating for me on RMP there. These are not students with a lot of initiative. I am wondering what their response rate will be for the "official" survery course evaluations.

You do not want to be on RMP. Trust me on this.

Oh I am on RMP for other schools. I gave myself some glowing reviews there too.

[little bongo]

From The Onion, so "satire" alert. I think there's something for all sides to laugh at...

https://local.theonion.com/college-freshman-annoyed-about-having-to-room-with-47-y-1839807313

[spork]

Wagner College has supposedly increased the teaching load of full-time faculty from 3-3 to 4-4 for at least the next two years, without change to salary. I guess that means bye-bye for a lot of adjuncts.

[mamselle]

I've just participated in the second of two very good conference sessions at K'zoo on adjunct experiences for medeivalists.

Just to say that it's not under the radar in some quarters.

(I also referred them to the fora....)

M.

[Wahoo Redux]

I've just participated in the second of two very good conference sessions at K'zoo on adjunct experiences for medeivalists.

Just to say that it's not under the radar in some quarters.

(I also referred them to the fora....)

M.

Do you have insights you could share with us from the conference?

[mamselle]

Yes.

In some ways, they were saying many of the same things that are often noted here. Some also blended with the issue of independent scholars, which not all were.

Strongest take-awy from both: "Play with the hand you've been dealt. Life won't be fair, but you'll get farther if you find a niche, work your way into it, and then out of it to the next, rather than pouting" (summarized).

From the two panels combined:

1. One couple (both Ph.Ds in different fields) presented together, and had clearly been level-headed and wise ever since meeting as grad students and marrying before they had their degrees. She finished first, and was adjuncting in her field while he was finishing up. He interviewed at the same school she was adjuncting at, was hired for a TT position, and is up for tenure in 3 years.

The school originally told them that they had a FT, maybe even TT position opening up for her. She continued to adjunct while awaiting a call to this position, which dematerialized after a semester or so. She saw they weren't following through on it, and continued her adjunct teaching; they were both very discouraged by the misleading suggestion (one might say, "lie") that she would have a TT as well, and considered leaving but decided to stay where they were since his position was secure.

She leveraged out of it by getting a position the next year in the advising office, then becoming the advising manager, and is now (having just heard after a second interview this AM) that a "next-step-up" admin position is about to be decided. No certainties, but she seems to have found a good-enough ladder upon which (as the moderator noted) she could one day move up through the admin ranks and end up being her husband's boss. 

So, she still teaches a course or two a year in areas she wants to teach in, is not expected to teach intro courses anymore, and since they have two kids (one born two weeks after she defended, apparently) the 9/5-ish schedule eases up her expectations while allowing them both to do what they wanted.

So, flexibility and seeing the writing on the wall right away worked well for them. The school's day-care's pandemic closure has made things difficult; they are both doing child-care and teaching from home. Their "two-body problem" had become a "four-body problem" (their second child was born a year after he took the new job) but it seems to have worked out.


2. Another fellow tried several times to get an interview at a school near the one he finished at, even for adjuncting. But because his degree was in, say, medieval history, the HR department figured he couldn't also teach, say, Global history (those weren't the topics, but for-instance) when he'd minored in another area that would have given him good exposure in the second field.

HR didn't know how to interpret it, so didn't forward his CV to the history department when openings arose. (moral here: if you're not applying for a posted position, the advice was send your materials directly to the relevant department, not HR, or to send them to both).

Because he also knew someone who taught in the school, he took them to lunch and asked what he could do to strengthen his application materials or his cover letter. The fellow apparently went to HR, explained the oversight, and he was hired the next term.

The irony is that, in a very small, 5-person department, the year after that, the only TT person in that program's faculty didn't want to become chair.

So the presenter was asked to take on the chair's position (with an appropriate bump in funding) for two years. It's unclear how that will play out--he wasn't interviewed for a TT opening in a related area recently, but a couple of us reminded him that the "courtesy interview" is an invention of hopeful adjuncts, not a likely reality; that embitterment was a waste of time and heart cells; and that he would do best to look forward to other options, using his upgraded position to apply out.


3. One fellow was on both panels. A medieval sociologist, he found a position with the state historical society developing materials on First Peoples' sites, and translated that to his current position as director of interpretation with oversight of docents and paid guides. He still has occasion to do research, present, and publish his findings in areas of interest, either is own, or those related to his site.

I believe this was after a few years' adjuncting in which, as another presenter noted, the assumption continued to be made that people with background in later historical periods could teach earlier ones, but not the other way around (when in fact, we all agreed, medievalists are MUCH better trained to be able to cover ANY historical subject, early or late, that all those other folks...[/joke])

He had also done work before being hired towards developing a podcast series on his medieval studies topics, which he continues; and suggested the need to a) see your colleagues as an asset, not the competition; b) ask yourself "What would I do if I weren't afraid?" and c) "Always be a cat and land on your feet."


4. The point of one panel was on collaboration between adjunct and permanent staff to the furtherment of the adjunct's career. One person there had worked in a shared IT capacity on a limited-term project developing web pages that used their medieval expertise and their computer knowledge on pages in the school's overall site--think, institutes or regional programs on particular topics, etc.

They felt that, besides being paid, one should carve out time to reach out to those in a capacity to further your own work (i.e., research, papers, etc.). He found it important to actively--but not too aggressively--find collaborators for later work, or even free-lance connections for whom he could do personal websites after leaving the position, as well.

He said faculty assumed he would always be around and would talk about working towards, say, a three-year collaboration plan when he'd have to remind them he'd only be there on campus for two years, per his contract. He thought it was important to impress on them the impermanent nature of the work from the start, to be sure they understood and didn't take his on-campus presence for granted.

He also suggested having a personal email that you only gave to potential collaborators in order to have a long-term connection with them, since email connectivity was discontinued so soon after leaving.* By getting them in the habit of using it, those you plan to work with later won't hold off, fearing they'll "bother you," because otherwise they're almost too considerate, when he'd rather be "bothered."

His takeaways were, "collaboration has to be a two-way street" and "TT faculty are used to thinking you'll always be there. Don't let them think that." Be in charge of your own coding: Tell them/show them/direct them in how to see you as a potential collaborator whose limited time presence suggests they should start working with you sooner rather than later.


5. Another presenter on that panel looked at their on-campus presence as ground from which to seek out collaborations a) on-campus; b) in conferences; c) in less formal communicative cells of like-minded/trained friends with whom to develop work. For a) they suggested developing conversations around across-the-board concerns like talking with folks about how they're handling covid constraints, or getting research done, or encouraging gender/race/ability diversity and sensitivity in the classroom within fields that might not be obviously connected--pertinent topics on which they could have significant conversations and within which they might find common ground.

This person also said, "Keep asking," having received travel support for conference presentations only after asking every year for four years. Once established, it was continued.

They also said, within reason, and done honestly, it was sometimes not a bad thing to point out that because of their position, they couldn't offer a class some benefit a TT prof could offer so they could 'see the struggle' firsthand (I'm not sure I agree on this, I think it could backfire massively).

They also mentioned a couple of online groups of colleagues that support each other within particular topics of interest, "The Lone Medievalist," and (I think this is someone else, but my notes say, "The 5-in-1 Medievalist.")


6. A chat-conversation was also going on, with people sharing how much the schools they adjuncted at did or didn't support their work, either with invitations to participate in conferences, use of school resources, etc.--that ranged from nothing to rather substantial levels of support--none paid for research or presentation travel directly; a couple folks had received stipends for extra work that they applied to those purposes.)     

One person seemed outraged that no-one had invited them to be a keynote speaker at an international conference, but...I think that comes under "unhelpful, chip-on-the-shoulder magical thinking...." There are independent scholars with that kind of reputation, but this wasn't one of them...

Respectfully submitted,

M.



*on the other hand, the last place I adjuncted at keeps my email live, having me change my password every 6 months, no other questions asked....so I do. Their IT guy says it's easier to do that than re-start an adjunct account, so unless they're told the person will never be re-hired under any circumstances, they just let it go. Their bookstore keeps telling me how much they miss me...)

[Wahoo Redux]

Very interesting!  Thank you.

[mahagonny]

I had a lot of words to read before I got to "encouraging gender/race/ability diversity and sensitivity" but it was worth the wait. Once again, having empathy for a fellow human being is a brand new idea.

[mamselle]

I had a lot of words to read before I got to "encouraging gender/race/ability diversity and sensitivity" but it was worth the wait. Once again, having empathy for a fellow human being is a brand new idea.

There was also an excellent session on diversity and inclusion in teaching global medieval art history topics. My only issue with it was that the state school I attended was already addressing those issues in the 1970s, with dancers-in-residence from Ghana and India, and invited musical performances from other sites in SE Asia and Africa, etc., while some of these folks seemed surprised at the levels of anger and "it's taken this long?" replies they were receiving from students, and, in one case, museum visitors, at the efforts they really were, at long last, making.

One presenter's situation in that session (not an adjunct, but a very young TT) was particularly worrying, and there were others who chimed in with her.

She's on an open-carry (guns) campus, and the degree of pushback she received upon trying to teach a manuscript by 11th c. Beneventan medical authority Constantine Africanus ( https://constantinusafricanus.com/tag/medicine/ ) was scary, both to her, and to the rest of us on her behalf...

M.