Contingent Faculty in Higher Education: New Classes of Adjuncts

• In Event: The Academic Majority: Role, Agency, and Commitment

Abstract

The number of faculty working under contingent contracts has risen dramatically over the last four decades. Today, most educators in higher education are faculty adjuncts. While these teachers now figure prominently in the work of higher education, there is much we do not know about who these faculty are and what they do. In this article, we examine this diverse group of contingent academics. We assign categories to adjuncts working in different capacities and examine demographic characteristics and job features of these different classes of contingent workers.

Authors

• Chad Evans, University of Pennsylvania

• Sarah Spell, University of Pennsylvania

• Frank F. Furstenberg, University of Pennsylvania