Events

2020 Annual Meeting

Your AAR staff continues to work toward holding the Annual Meeting in Boston, Nov. 21-24, 2020. We are aware of the uncertainty and contradictory projections related to the COVID-19 pandemic and with health and safety as a priority, we will continue monitoring the guidance of governments and health experts as we plan and make decisions. Should any changes need to be made related to the 2020 Annual Meeting, we will promptly notify you.

2020 Regional Meetings

Open Registration:

All remaining regional meetings for 2020 have been canceled

Academic Labor and Contingent Faculty Committee

Charge:  The Committee supports the efforts of the American Academy of Religion to address a wide range of issues connected to educational institutions’ heavy reliance on contingent faculty, including those working on a part-time basis as well as single or multi-year contracts. The Committee advocates cultural and structural change to ensure just work conditions, pay, and collective bargaining rights for contingent faculty in order to foster equity, labor justice, and the common good in the Academy. Contingent faculty chair the Committee.

Composition:  Up to nine members.  The committee is co-chaired by at least one contingent faculty member and the AAR Contingent Faculty Director.

Term of Service:  Committee members serve a four year, non-renewable term. The AAR Contingent Faculty Director serves a three-year term as co-chair.

Meetings Schedule:

  • One in-person meeting at the Annual Meeting in November.
  • Quarterly virtual meetings via Zoom.

Duties and Responsibilities: Members of the Academic Labor and Contingent Faculty committee are expected to participate in the following

  • The ALCF Committee hosts a luncheon each year at the Annual Meeting and is responsible for developing the theme, activities, or speakers during the lunch. Committee members are expected to make every effort to attend.
  • The ALCF holds two or more sessions/panels/roundtables during the Annual Meeting. The group also cosponsors sessions with other committees and program units. Often committee members are asked to be panelists or respondents in these sessions, and it's important that they attend as many ALCF-sponsored events as possible during the meeting.
  • During the Annual Meetings, ALCF members participate in a Ribbon campaign, occasional poster campaign, and occasional hosting of union organizers in the Exhibit Hall.
  • Some committee members may be asked to also serve on the Annual Meeting Travel Grant jury.

Timeline of Activities:

  • March 1 - date by which to have date, theme, and total number of available spots for Annual Meeting luncheon.
  • April 1 - date by which to have Special Topics Forums complete (with speakers and description)

 

Staff Liaison Job Title Phone Number
Alice Hunt 404-727-3049

For more information email: alcf@aarweb.org

Have comments, suggestions, or ideas for the ALCF? Want to be updated about our work? Let us know!

 

Information about Contingent Faculty, Labor, and Compensation

Trends in the Academic Labor Force, 1975–2015
Graphic, American Association of University Professors, March 2017

2016–17 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession: Visualizing Change
Report, American Association of University Professors, March–April 2017

The High Public Cost of Low Wages
Research brief, UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, April 2015

The Employment Status of Instructional Staff Members in Higher Education, Fall 2011
Report, American Association of University Professors, April 2014

A Portrait of Part-Time Faculty
Survey data and report, Coalition on the Academic Workforce, 2012

Who is Professor "Staff," and How Can This Person Teach So Many Classes?
Report, Campaign for the Future of Higher Education, August 2012

Chronicle Data
Data, Chronicle of Higher Education, User-submitted salary and per-course compensation

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
National Center for Education Statistics, compiles data on students, faculty, finances, and more from every postsecondary institution that takes government-provided student aid

Articles and Opinion

Our Theological Schools are Running Ethical Deficits: Here's How We Can Fix That
by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite for Religious Studies News, May 29, 2018

Union Busting for God: Catholic Colleges Invoke "Religious Freedom" to Violate Catholic Teaching
by Kaya Oakes for Religion Dispatches, June 23, 2017

The Cost of an Adjunct
The Atlantic, May 26, 2015

The Changing Academic Workforce
Trusteeship Magazine, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, May/June 2013

Resources

Access to Unemployment Benefits for Contingent Faculty
Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor

SEIU Faculty Forward