The Adjunctification of Higher Education: A Guided Syllabus
As part of a research project supported by the CUNY Adjunct Incubator, “The Adjunctification of Higher Education: A Guided Syllabus” developed by PhD student in Cultural Anthropology at the Graduate Center, CUNY, Michelle Gaspari (Adjunct Lecturer in sociology, anthropology, and women and gender studies at Baruch College, and a Co-Organizer at The CUNY Adjunct Project) is a multimedia digital pedagogical toolkit for faculty to teach about adjunct welfare and precarity at CUNY.
The guided syllabus will consist of content and lessons to teach students about the undervalued adjunct labor that keeps New York City’s public higher education afloat, the broader sociological backdrop of higher education’s “adjunctification” in this country, and the ways that students and educators can pressure CUNY and the state to intervene and advocate for their right to fairly compensated professors.
Part of the toolkit is an original short documentary on CUNY’s relationship with its adjunct workers. It features several adjuncts presenting their experiences. This can be streamed in the classroom and mobilized in adjunct activism at CUNY. There will be a panel discussion featuring the documentary and the broader syllabus project hosted by The CUNY Adjunct Project in Fall 2021.
This project is part of the CUNY Adjunct Incubator and is co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Gittell Urban Studies Collective at the Graduate Center, CUNY.