In this episode, Karen and Kel talk about how searches are run. While Karen wrote chapter four of the book to open up the Black Box (so to speak) of the academic job search, a closer examination reveals all the ways that the “normative” search model that she describes both reinscribes and conceals the institution’s investments in whiteness at every turn. From the approval of the new line, through the ad and the search process, to the campus visit and offer, departments and search committees scaffold whiteness into every part of the process… and then wonder why the professoriate remains so white.
Nothing is normal and you’re angry, scared, exhausted…on repeat every day. Karen and Kel talk about our new emotional landscape and accepting where you are right now, in the face of so much suffering and fear. Whatever you’re doing: it’s enough. ...
Karen and Kel talk to Professor Erin Cech (Sociology, U of Michigan), the author of the forthcoming book, The Problem with Passion (U California Press, 2021), about why our national obsession with “following your passion” actually intensifies inequality. Erin explains how passion leads to “choice-washing,” in which unequal outcomes are justified by claiming they were freely chosen, even while those without privilege and resources struggle to get access to “passion”-driven work. She shows how the passion principle came hand in hand with the erosion of worker rights–if there is no more stable work, we may as well do “what we love” and do only the work that “fulfills us” and “expresses our deepest self.” The passion principle permeates academia, of course, and fuels all manner of exploitation, especially around the issue of adjuncting. If you’re “passionate” about your subject, surely that will carry you through any trials and tribulations… and if you object, then surely you just aren’t passionate enough? And so adjuncts are told/tell themselves that if they’re still in academia, they’re still fulfilling their passion and therefore well-compensated… no matter how little they’re paid and how much they’re exploited. Which, as Erin Cech notes, launches a vicious circle, as overwork forecloses the time needed to critique the passion economy and find meaningful alternatives. [Become a subscribing member for just $3.99 a month and get access to our subscriber only goodies like free webinar recordings, AMAs, the ...
Karen and Kel are back from their summer hiatus, and they talk re-entry. Re-entry, that is, to a shitshow academic year in a pandemic that, in the US, has been mismanaged to a degree that almost defies belief. Academics are coming back to campuses that are for the most part totally unprepared and unwilling to deal with actual student and staff vulnerabilities to COVID-19, and confronting a level of lethal indifference from many administration and students both that has shocked even the most jaded among us (ie, Karen). Drawing from a re-entry model developed by an Australian academic, Karen and Kel talk about ways that administrators can improve re-entry processes, and ways that vulnerable and burnt out faculty and grad students can think about how best to proceed. [Become a subscribing member for just $3.99 a month and get access to our subscriber only goodies like free webinar recordings, AMAs, the chance to suggest topics, early access to the podcast video that we record in our house in Oregon, and — new from this week – live videos with Karen and Kel on Friday mornings, all on our dedicated podcast member page on Mighty Networks! Not ready to subscribe? Donate here to send along some support. ...
