Please join current English program student Karen Pitt, program alumna Ann Larson, and Bronx Community College assistant professor Brian Thill next Thursday, April 3rd, at 3p, in room 8301/8304, for a panel discussion on “Comp/Rhet, Academic Labor, and the Future of English Studies.” Sponsored by the PhD Program in English, the GC Composition and Rhetoric Community, and the Adjunct Project. Faculty, staff, and students warmly invited to share ideas and strategize.
This year’s MLA conference, as ever, galvanized attention to a range of issues pertaining to academic labor and academic capitalism overall, the adjunct struggle in particular, and the efficacy–and capacity–of the MLA, as an institutional body, and the professoriat and administrators at individual institutions, in addressing these issues. Not incidentally, this multi-faceted discussion inside the discipline and institution of English studies has been complemented by an upswing in media coverage of these problematics (including a New York Times piece on program alumnus James Hoff, “cobbling together a living”–the well-worn phrase–as an adjunct) and the now-steady stream of “don’t go to graduate school” advisories. And this is just to name a few aspects of this conglomeration of issues and narratives.
This particular panel discussion is oriented by the role of composition and rhetoric in the adjunctification of higher ed and is inspired by Larson’s 2012 blog post reflecting on her experiences in our program as a comp/rhet specialist vis-a-vis CUNY, academia, and global capitalism. We offer it as suggested reading: http://annlarson.org/2012/03/03/rhetoric-and-composition-academic-capitalism-and-cheap-teachers/
Larson, Pitt, and Thill will each speak for 10 minutes, offering a mix of personal experience and critical perspective, after which we’ll shift to discussion, with an eye toward yielding recommendations, even if inchoate, for changes.
We hope as many folks as possibly can join us for what we expect to be a robust, enlivening conversation.
On behalf of the panelists, sponsors, and co-organizer Amanda Licastro,
my best,
Sean
Sean M. Kennedy
Ph.D. student, English | gc.cuny.edu
Adjunct instructor (graduate teaching fellow), English | lehman.edu
Coordinator, advocacy/education | cunyadjunctproject.org
Everything | sean-kennedy.com
Teaching Tumblrs | stopandfriskdesist.tumblr.com | criticalu.tumblr.com
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