Editor’s note: ACCUTE is proud to present the next installment in a series of blog posts highlighting special sessions in ACCUTE’s program at Congress 2017. Today we highlight a round table jointly hosted by ACCUTE’s Contract Academic Faculty Caucus and its Graduate Student Caucus.

Organizers and Chairs: Ross Bullen (OCAD U) and Kala Hirtle (Dalhousie)

This round table will bring together Contract Academic Faculty and graduate students to discuss issues surrounding precarious academic labour. For most graduate students entering the academic job market, precarious labour – as a sessional or CLTA – will be the only kind of academic work available. Although the conventional narrative of the academic job search (sessional à CLTA/postdoc à tenure-track position) holds that this will only be a temporary or transitional phase, the lived experience of many CAF suggests otherwise. What can graduate students do to prepare for precarity? What are the alternatives? What do CAF wish they had known as graduate students before they entered the academic job market? This panel will address these and other questions, as graduate students and CAF come together to discuss the numerous challenges – and occasional rewards – of precarious work in postsecondary education.

Participants:

• Brent Ryan Bellamy (Memorial)
• Ross Bullen (OCAD)
• Kala Hirtle (Dalhousie)
• Nahmi Lee (Western)
• Dancy Mason (McGill)
• Leif Schenstead-Harris (Concordia)
• Tom Stuart (Western)
• Eileen Wennekers (Western/OCAD)

This panel will be held on Monday, May 29th, 1:45-3:15 pm, Victoria Building, room 204