Submission deadline: January 17, 2020
Note: Submissions will not be returned.
The editor of FORUM: Issues about Part-Time and Contingent Faculty seeks articles exploring contingent faculty activism.
Nationwide, we have seen a surge of activism in response to the continued corporatization of education–high school teachers walking out in Virginia and California, graduate students unionizing, and adjunct faculty organizing in Florida and North Carolina. This special issue is inspired by this latest surge in action. Composition and English studies has significant scholarship dedicated to documenting and theorizing labor problems and conditions. This special issue concerns what happens next.
Recent anthologies like Composition in the Age of Austerity (2016), Contingency, Exploitation, and Solidarity: Labor & Action in English Composition (2017), and Labored: The State(ment) and Future Work in Composition (2017) do some of this work. The editorial board of Forum invites authors, especially contingent, non-tenure-track, and adjunct faculty in English studies, to contribute to this growing body of scholarship. We are interested in movements, actions, and policies small and large, concerning single departments or entire systems. Where possible, pieces should be framed by or connect to the work of writing and English department faculty.
Writers may approach the theme in a variety of ways, including but not limited to the following:
- Where has contingent faculty action or activism worked, and in what contexts? What made these initiatives successful? What was learned through these successes?
- Where has contingent faculty activism not worked, and in what contexts? What caused these initiatives to fail? What was learned through these failures?
- How might our disciplinary knowledge in Composition, Rhetoric, and English studies best be employed in our activism?
- How do geographic location, state laws, and institution type affect progress in contingent faculty activism?
- What possibilities remain for contingent faculty activism in various contexts?
Due to FORUM’s space limitations, essays should be between 1,500 and 2,700 words. While authors should reference current professional/scholarly discussions, extensive literature reviews are not required. Submissions will go through peer review. For further information please contact Amy Lynch-Biniek at lynchbin@kutztown.edu.
Submit your work electronically to lynchbin@kutztown.edu. Put the words “FORUM article” in your subject line. Submissions should include the following information:
- your name
- your title(s)
- your institution(s)
- home address and phone number; institutional address(es) and phone number(s)
- if applicable, venue(s) where submission was first published or presented previously
Thank you for your interest!
FORUM Editor: Amy Lynch-Biniek
FORUM Editorial Board: Natalie Dorfeld, Steve Fox, Jes Philbrook
