What's wrong with (the rhetoric surrounding) adjuncts? Part 1

The Adjuncts vs. Professors conundrum has been on my mind. In a recent post, I talked about why it should be hard to compare what adjuncts bring to a classroom with what research-active professors bring to the classroom. I avoided the really tough talk in the last article, and I will avoid it here as well. However, I hope to lay some groundwork, inspired by a recent story. The story involves a woman who died at 83, having taught French for 25 years at Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The context of the story, as usually presented, is that Duquesne is not letting its adjuncts unionize and, due to the lack of a union, the woman died without proper healthcare and neigh homeless. The details of the story are sketchy; as in, they are only loosely sketched out anywhere I have found them. Where were social security and medicare? How does a college stop the organization of a well-mustered union? Etc. All that aside... while I do not think I am a heartless troll, I have trouble fully sympathizing with those who feel that the woman should have been entitled to more from Duquesne than she received. The plights described in the sketched version of the woman's story are NOT unique to adjunct professors, it is a trait that many members of Expertland share:

Getting back in the swing of things

Updates this summer have been a bit sporadic, in part because I have been switching jobs. While I don't normally want to post "personal" things in this space, this particular change is obviously professionally relevant. 

I am now working in the Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning (CTRL) at American University in Washington, DC. We are focused on supporting faculty and graduate students across the range of disciplines at the University. I am in the "Research" part of the center, and have responsibilities including running a computer lab stocked with the latest research software, (including overseeing the twelve graduate student consultants who act as front-line help) and developing a better working relationship between CTRL and the Office of Sponsored Programs (including much work related to grant development). There will also be many consultations regarding ongoing research projects, which I really enjoy. To cap things off, Terry Davidson has generously arranged an affiliation with his Center for Behavioral Neuroscience. Thus, while I am not yet in a position to have my own graduate students, I am now in a position to work closely with several of them.

The DC location also puts me closer to a group of pragmatist philosophers that I have been hoping to work with more closely, and provides countless other exciting opportunities.

A few people have asked if it is a "good" job, and I'm not quite sure how to respond. I wouldn't have taken it if it was bad. I guess what those inquirers are looking for is something like this:

It was definitely the right move for my family, and I am fairly confident it was a good move for my career. CTRL was very excited to offer me the job, and the position gives me the opportunity to develop skills I have long-wanted to develop, at a vibrant university, with a good set of co-workers. When they offered, I was happy to accept.

I have many things to catch up on here on the blog, and now that the semester is starting, I will get back into the routine of posting at least once a week. Many thanks to those who have not abandoned my blog during these inconsistent times.

Expect my contact information on various pages to start updating slowly. Oh, and if you are one of my many readers in the Maryland, DC, or Virginia areas, and you want to chat some time, let me know.

APA Convention - Society for General Psychology

As I mentioned in a prior post, while I'm not a big fan of the main APA convention, I am a big fan of the APA Shadow Convention (© Charles 2012). This year I am in charge of the hospitality suite run by The Society for General Psychology (APA Division 1). We are co-hosting a number of events with The Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (Division 24) and The Society for the History of Psychology (Division 26). It is a pretty fun program, with some experiments thrown in (Post-symposium discussions, a Speed Scholars Event, etc.) as well as a lot of social activities. There is also the two-hour "Unifying Psychology" Lunch I mentioned in the last post, featuring several authors from this month's special issue. I'll do my best to get the program cut and pasted below. Hope to see some of you in Hawaii!

The APA convention can be worth while?!?

Last year I attended the American Psychological Association's annual meeting for the first time in over a decade. The main conference was as much a waste of time as I had remembered. It was filled with sad talks given to mostly empty rooms and sad poster presentations that only a handful of people stopped at (including my own). The only filled rooms were for awards talks, where people talked about work long past. That was really interesting, but only if they were in an area you were not familiar with, and people tended not to attend talks in areas they were unfamiliar with. (In fairness, many rooms were filled for talks that counted as continuing education credits for clinicians, as well as a few "advice" sessions for students.)

That said, it was actually a very positive experience; I was now connected enough to find out about The APA Shadow Conference (© Charles 2012). It turns out that almost every APA division has a bunch of meetings, small talks, and organized discussions in dedicated hotel suites, and that a lot of very interesting stuff happens there. Small groups (ranging from 5 to 25) people interested in similar topics were continuously coming together, with discussion continuing over meals and across days. Most of the time the suites were filled to a neigh ideal level of intimacy, sometimes they were downright crowded. Never was a person talking to an empty room, nor was a speaker ever addressing people who were not genuinely interested. This was actually worth while!