A Depressing Dissertation

Image from https://www.agb.org/trusteeship/2013/5/changing-academic-workforce

Given the political climate these days, being able to throw myself at something can provide a respite from hours of reading the Washington Post. I wish that "thing" that I threw myself at was running, but I can't do that now because I'm 6 months pregnant. I would do more on our kitchen remodel, but I'm really not that handy, as becomes more evident to me every time I try to help out (seriously, I have a hard time using a screw driver). I would even welcome gardening or lawn work, but the weather isn't quite ready. So what I throw myself at is my dissertation proposal. And unfortunately, it is not the most positive project I can work on, nor does it completely take my mind off of what is going on in the world. And perhaps this is the point of a dissertation, or any academic scholarship. Actually, I believe it MUST be the point of scholarship, to engage in what is happening today, to ask questions about why things are happening the way they are, and to potentially try to impact those things through research. And so began my dissertation proposal.

Initially, I had a very different approach to my topic. Last summer I chatted with my advisor and we both were excited about the direction I was heading in. I was going to examine teaching practices and ask questions about how colleges and universities support faculty who are not on the tenure track. However this topic always kind of bothered me, because although it was interesting, it wasn't quite "me." Then the election came, and I had to accept that the work that I do needs to be asking larger questions of society. So I went back somewhat to the drawing table and had real talk with my advisor. Real talk with him is sometimes awkward, but it is getting easier. Now I have a topic I am keenly interested in. Although I am still working out some of the kinks.

This is what my dissertation is about: I am going to examine how the work of non-tenure track faculty looks like women's work. The faculty system in higher education has become bifurcated, one for faculty who are "tenure-track" (think traditional faculty who go through the process of getting tenure, publishing, researching, and move through the ranks of assistant, associate, and finally full professor) and the other area of faculty, "non-tenure track" (think those faculty who typically have one- to three-year contracts, teach most of the time, and can be part-time). Over the last 30 years, this non-tenure track career has become the majority of faculty work, which means most of the faculty, or "professors" that we see in colleges and universities are working under time-limited contracts. They also don't do a lot of research, and they also likely will never go through the tenure process, because they're not in the tenure system. Additionally, in the last 15 years or so, the majority of those who are non-tenure track are now women. I'm not going to make any correlations here, but I'll say that there are issues wrapped up in this. Examples of these issues include the fact that non-tenure track faculty spend the majority of their time teaching, an occupation often viewed as women's work; non-tenure track faculty rarely bring prestige to a university, an expectation the university puts on faculty; and non-tenure track faculty are basically viewed as somewhat second tier (depending on what study I've just read).

I won't get into the details of my dissertation but I'll say that I am extremely excited about this topic. It reflects who I am and what I'm interested in. I'll also say I'm learning a lot about how to talk about issues of gender stratification, wage-gap problems, and overall inequity in higher education. But it can be a very glum subject matter. Yet a glum subject that needs to have some light shed on it.