Introducing myself and my journal: Adjunct Justice

About Me:
I am a former Ph.D candidate in Comparative Literature from New York University. I never completed my Ph.D. because motherhood got in the way—tenure and parenting do not mix. Thus I switched fields and worked in academic publishing for over 20 years. I missed academia, however, and decided to return, only to be shocked to find the Ivory Tower inhospitable to most educators. It did not take me long to take up the cause for contingent faculty. I began a petition for Adjunct Justice, now with almost 7700 signatures (http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/better-pay-for-adjuncts), which grew into a Facebook forum for adjuncts to connect and organize (https://www.facebook.com/AdjunctJustice). I try to raise awareness and dedicate all my time to advance professional equity for adjunct and contingent faculty, presenting a paper on such issues at the Democracy and Education Convention held in Madison, Wisconsin in August 2013 and going to several meetings in DC to advance our cause. I have written extensively concerning the adjunct’s plight, including a Letter to the Pope, which has been published in various places across the Internet. Most recently, I became a board member of Future Without Poverty, another non-profit, to advance equity among the less privileged in our society. Always, however, I keep education in mind.

My Passions:
Higher Education & immigration issues, especially when related to education

My Challenges:
combining these two issues and bringing equity to the most vulnerable in our educated society: adjunct faculty, who teach the most vulnerable, the undocumented.

My Vision for the Future:
To be able to bring equity to the 75% of contingent faculty who do not make a living wage; most people do not know this, and it is my hope to expose Higher Ed's dirty little secret.

My Areas of Expertise:
Higher Education, English, Comparative Literature, Spanish/English Translations