The Adjunct Crisis in Visuals

Crisis or intentional structural adjustment?  This graphic presents an interesting visual of what's going on in the adjunct system.  It might be interesting to look into this a bit more and cross-reference it!

You can find The Adjunct Crisis here, from Progressive Geographies.

Terms of Work for Composition -- Chapter 1, "Work"

I spent some time reading chapter 1 from Terms of Work for Composition yesterday, and I learned some interesting things.  Here are the highlights:

• Work often means producing academic texts, not teaching or administration (3)
• Courses are commodities owned by the institution, not the individual, which is part of why they aren't seen as work (6)
• There is a divide between intellectual/mental and non-intellectual/manual labor, and sometimes the teaching of Composition as seen as non-intellectual/manual labor (8)
• Unions can sometimes take away flexibility and freedom and autonomy, which is why they're not always the solution to academic labor issues; but Composition teachers may not lose a lot from them since they often have less freedom and autonomy from the start (22)

Overall, this chapter seems to be puzzling through what counts as "work" in the academy, in English departments, and in Composition.  Then it looks at the politics of these decisions and how they impact teachers/scholars/those in the field.

The discussion of unions on 24-26 still interests me -- I'd like to remember to ask Seth Kahn what he thinks of this discussion.  As part of the labor caucus, I've noticed that we discuss unions often, but I don't really get it all the time.  Maybe Seth can help?

Also, there was a citation that interested me (Gunner) related to the Wyoming resolution.  It looks like this is the article:

Gunner, Jeanne.  "The Fate of the Wyoming Resolution: A History of Professional Seduction."  Writing Ourselves Into the Story: Unheard Voices from Composition Studies.  Ed. Sheryl Fontaine and Susan Hunter.  Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1992. 107-22.

This might be kind of old to use in my Comps, but it also might be useful in my secondary section.  I'll look into this more soon.

Next up: read chapter 2 or read Sharon Crowley's review.