Monday, March 31, 2008

Multi-Layered Mentoring: How the University Works Review

Marc Bousquet
How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation
Foreword by Cary Nelson
New York University Press: New York, 2008

A How-To for Adjuncts and Tenureds Alike

How the University Works (HTUW) is mentoring in action.  Marc Bousquet’s text is tight, intelligent, convincing, well-structured, solidly supported, and engaging.  No doubt about it, as academic texts go, HTUW is a great model.  If you are trying to get published, select one of his six essays, examine it closely, and you have a great model to follow.  If you are curious about how to put a book together on a general theme, but you have a collection of different but related ideas, then HTUW demonstrates how this can be done as well.  More importantly, if you find critical thinking, critical education, or activism important, Bousquet demonstrates how you can combine your ethos, pathos, and logos, bolster your vita, and work towards a better society.

Marc Bousquet’s book is not just for adjuncts—it is a great model for tenureds.  HTUW demonstrates an effective way to be an ally of the contingent academic labor movement.  This is seen in exactly what Bousquet does not say.  Bousquet does not dwell upon the …

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Friday, March 28, 2008

Job Search Wikis

Thanks to a recent discussion on the WPA list, I learned about three interlocking Wikis.  First, there is the general Academic Job Search Wiki.  Wow!  Just reading the universities to fear and universities to love links is a refreshing visit to human nature.  Second, is the Composition/Rhetoric Job Listings Wiki for the 2007-2008 hiring cycle. Last, but not least, is the Composition and Rhetoric Wiki, which has useful information about applying for work in the field.  For a non-Ph.D. like me, it makes me think some parts of my life are much easier than my doctorated colleagues. 

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Adjunct Culture

Marc Bousquet, in his book How the University Works, uses the phrase “adjunct culture.” Over the past couple weeks, I have been contemplating just what “adjunct culture” means.  Well, at least what adjunct culture means to me.

Here are some early results.  If you have your own opinions or ideas, please let me know or post them to your blog (and let me know as well so I can link the discussions!).

Adjunct Culture means physical community.
Community in the department.
Community in the division.
Community in the college.
Community in the region.

All of these places—or senses of place—offer adjuncts a means or excuse to be in touch with and identify with one another.  These are factors that can be used to leverage or generate solidarity.

Adjunct Culture means electronic community.
Creating community through online list-serves.
Creating community through blogs and networks of blogs.
Creating community by writing, posting, and responding to online texts.
Creating community by organizing and unionizing online.
Creating community by blowing off steam and/or seeking advice online.

Adjunct Culture means creating cultural artifacts.
Creating films about adjuncts and their lives.
Creating poems and …

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Powering Up Your Firefox Use

Yet again, Web Worker Daily comes to the rescue!  Within sixty seconds of scanning the article, I learned a new trick: how to close a tab using the scroll wheel.  This article has nine more tips that will up your Firefox efficiency.  Good stuff, this is.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Adjuncting in Florida

In this powerful piece, Tina Trent discusses adjuncting in Florida.

Job Application Competition

Almost every adjunct I know wants to get full-time work.  Most adjuncts would like to find full-time work with one of their current employers.  That opportunity is very rare.  So we send out vitae and applications to several if not a dozen schools looking for a tenured gig.  Most of our adjunct colleagues do exactly the same thing.  And as most of us usually get along with our colleagues, the application process can create a bit of tension.

Do you tell your colleagues which schools you are applying to?
Do you tell your colleagues where you found the job listing?
Do you share with your colleagues the writers of your letters of recommendation?
Do you let your colleagues know when you scored a telephone or in-person interview?

When we are broke, it is easy to want to hide the resources, hide the openings, and take tight control of the information.  We horde it so that one or two or five less people know about the job.  Such behaviors appear to make for less competition, but that’s not a good way to treat colleagues.  That’s cut-throat competition, and it is not something I believe in or endorse.  It also generates a subtle shift in one’s overall attitude and interactions with colleagues—deceit and manipulation are given credibility …

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The ASUS Eee: Perfect for Adjuncts

Normally I do not review, promote, or discuss products for sale.  However, my recent quest for a strong and portable laptop that is cheap (under $500) and easy to use yielded some great feedback on the ASUS Eee.  While I read reviews online, I trust the reviews from the TechRhet and WPA-lists.  The following reviews were so good that I went and ordered an ASUS Eee immediately—this is not something I do.  Ever.

Both authors of the convincing emails, Tari Fanderclai and Charlie Lowe, were kind enough to grant permission for me to reprint this here. 

Once you read the reviews below and consider the price—$300-$400 per model—it becomes clear how much more accessible these are for adjuncts.  Not only that, but departments that are a bit more flush in cash could offer their adjuncts ASUS Eees as a perk for teaching.  This way, the department demonstrates some fiscal goodwill and helps supply the technology necessary for teaching instead of expecting the adjuncts to supply all of their tools and cover all of their expenses.

Per Tari Fanderclai:

I have one of these.  It’s fabulous.  I waited until January to buy it so that I could read reviews by all the people who got them as holiday gifts.  Almost everyone raved; all the negative reviews I read …

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