Light in a Dark World: Professional Life of Academics in the U.S. University

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

The four presentations in this symposium rely upon scholarly literature and empirical data from fieldwork to address the ways in which academic professionals at public universities cope with challenges to their professional work and identities. Although the university in the U.S. is the subject of a critical discourse of ruination and a dystopian product of neoliberal initiatives, academics do find strategies, practices, and rationalizations that sustain them. These strategies differ for academic subgroups (tenure track faculty, distinguished faculty, part-time faculty, and deans) which indicates that the academic profession is in continuous change and adaptation, yet there is preservation of traditional values. Two discussants will rely upon their own research to critique the paper presentations and initiate discussion among the audience.

Sub Unit

• Division J - Postsecondary Education / Division J - Section 4: Faculty, Curriculum, and Teaching

Chair

• John S. Levin, University of California - Riverside

Papers

• Academic Deans: The Balance of Academic Values and the Management of Academics - Marie C. Martin, University of California – Riverside

• Part-Time Faculty: Professional Engagement and Worth - Ariadna Isabel Lopez Damian, University of California - Riverside

• Emotional Balance in Precarious Conditions: The Narratives of Distinguished Professors - Evelyn Morales Vazquez, University of California - Riverside

• Full-Time Tenure-Track Faculty: Stability Within an Insecure Professional Identity - John S. Levin, University of California - Riverside

Discussants

• Leslie D. Gonzales, Michigan State University

• Jeffrey F. Milem, University of California - Santa Barbara