Adjunct Faculty Over the Life Course: New Insights Into the Adjunct Profession

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: Society, Culture, and Change

Abstract

The number of adjuncts teaching in higher education has grown rapidly over the last four decades. Today, the majority of post-secondary educators work on contingent contracts. While there has been great interest in this transformation, less attention has been given to the features of adjunct labor across the life course. Using 3,124 person-waves of data from the Survey of Doctorate Recipients, we investigate features of adjunct labor (Ph.D. recipients only) at different time points in the careers of these educators. We find important patterns in the demographic characteristics, graduate training and job characteristics of these adjunct faculty.

Authors

• Chad Evans, University of Pennsylvania

• Sarah Spell, University of Pennsylvania

• Frank F. Furstenberg, University of Pennsylvania