I have noticed in a lot of the ads for adjunction postions they are asking for applicants to have publications. Really? Since when do adjuncts have time to conduct research? On their hour long commutes between universities? Am I the only one who views the request to take low unstable pay but meet the requirements of tenured faculty unreasonable?
I don't get it. How is this an April Fool's Day post?
ReplyDeleteI don't like the new background and header. Or the font. Or this post. Or April Fool's Day.
ReplyDeleteOr any of you.
Other than that, I'm cool.
Oh, and this page is dying. Clearly.
Sadly, I think this one might be real. I can see asking for publications from what I think of as "traditional" or "real" adjuncts: professionals in a field who teach one or two advanced classes to students who are close to entering that field. Expecting publications would be reasonable *if* publishing were a regular part of practice in the field in question. Of course the proportion of adjuncts who currently meet this description is probably just a little larger than that advertised percentage of impurities in Ivory Soap.
ReplyDeleteI suspect it's a way of being able to say "see, our adjuncts are high-quality teachers! Just as good as the regular, (somewhat) decently-paid faculty!" Which is actually true in the great majority of cases, but horrible working conditions can undermine even high-quality teachers' effectiveness.
It only makes sense if you believe that adjuncting is still an apprenticeship for a TT job, as it was 20 years ago. Or if you believe that you can actually make a living wage adjuncting while teaching 3 x 2, which will allow you time to write. Or believe any number of other things that are, increasingly, untrue.
ReplyDeleteCould it be a way to legally limit the applicant pool to favor their own recent grad students?
ReplyDeleteI am an adjunct and I have pubs.
ReplyDeleteI have no family aside from the Smasher (who is not family) and the dog. The black one.
Oh, and I'm crazy.
I apologize for threadjacking here, but I've wanted to ask this question for years now, and I'm jumping on the chance afforded by the mention above. What does that phrase "3 x 2" (or whatever the numbers can be) refer to? Yes, teaching load, I know that. What does it mean? Thanking you in advance...
ReplyDeleteIt means 3 courses in the first semester, 2 in the second.
ReplyDelete