Forum welcomes you to submit essays related to the teaching, working conditions, professional life, activism, and perspectives of non-tenure-track faculty. Faculty and scholars from all academic positions are welcome to contribute. Of special interest are research, analyses, and strategies grounded in local contexts, given that labor conditions and the needs of contingent faculty vary greatly with geography, institutional settings, and personal circumstances.

Essays should address theoretical and/or disciplinary debates. They will go through the standard peer review and revision process. For further information please contact the Forum editor at Kimberly_Bain@pba.edu.

Submit your work electronically to Forum by emailing Kimberly_Bain@pba.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

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Special Issue Call for Manuscripts—Identity and Contingency: When Who We Are Shapes What We Do

Submission deadline: January 20, 2026. Publication: Fall 2026.

Issues of identity shape not only who we are as faculty, but also how we perform and the connections we make in the classroom. Identifying one’s place, not just as an educator but as a person, has unique implications for part-time and contingent faculty in higher learning, both in and outside the academic spaces they take up. In an article published by Inside Higher Ed, Colleen Flaherty points out that “students who identify with their instructors based on certain underrepresented visible identities can benefit from an increased sense of belonging and self-efficacy, better course outcomes and more.” Understanding how identity shapes the work done by part-time and full-time contingent faculty is the first step toward addressing equitable measures of support as we engage with students in the classroom.

Part-time and full-time contingent faculty offer rich real-world perspectives, shaped by identities established inside and outside of their institutions. This special issue invites voices that identify the connections between identity and contingency.

Viable submissions for the special issue will explore considerations of personal and professional identity for part-time and full-time contingent faculty in the field of writing studies. Submission topics might include, but are not limited to, considerations of the following:

• Working-professional-as-faculty identities
• Underrepresented minorities
• Bilingual and multilingual identities
• Faculty evaluations and assessment practices
• Subculture identities
• Accessibility, difference, and inclusion

Submission Requirements

Submissions must be original; 1,500 to 2,000 words long; and formatted in the latest edition of MLA style. Please send your submission via email attachment to the editor at Kimberly_Bain@pba.edu. The cover message should have the subject line “FORUM article” and include the following information:

• Your name
• Your title(s)
• Your institution(s)
• Institutional address(es) and phone number(s) if applicable

Proposals and general inquiries may also be directed to the editor. Forum welcomes you to submit essays related to the teaching, working conditions, professional life, activism, and perspectives of non-tenure-track faculty. Faculty and scholars from all academic positions are welcome to contribute. Essays should address theoretical and/or disciplinary debates. All submissions will go through the standard peer-review and revision process.

Work Cited

Flaherty, Colleen. “Making Faculty Identities Visible, for Students’ Sake.” Inside Higher Ed, 24 Apr. 2024, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/academic-life/2024/04/24/when-professors-share-identities-students-can-benefit/.