FORUM Contingent Faculty Questionnaire

As we seek to alter the material conditions under which Compositionist teach, we must first define the limits of our own contingency.  By understanding the scope of these limits we will better understand the constraints under which we all labor.  Consequently, we are asking our readership to come to voice in complex ways by defining the limits of your teaching lives. 

Below is a series of questions you’ll find on how contingency touches your life as a teacher, researcher, administrator, or student.  We invite WPAs, contingent faculty at every level, and even your students to write about the ways in which you struggle to teach, live, learn, and belong in the academy.  Consequently, we will seek to make public your voices as we charge our professional organizations to support your labor in defined ways.  This anonymous questionnaire is a way of collecting your voices.  As the editor of FORUM, I welcome you to submit your story.  The questions below are merely a starting point as you define not only the scope but rather the pedagogical, disciplinary, economic and other implications that contingency plays on your academic life.

For further information, please e-mail Dr. Brad Hammer, Editor, FORUM at bhammer@unc.edu.

1
Name: (Optional)
2
Institution(s):
3
Years teaching writing:
4
Degree(s):
5
Salary per course (if you are not compensated per course, please continue to question 6):
6

Salary per year:

7
Length/terms of contract:
8
Number of students per section:
9
Benefits:
10
Support (office space/computer use):
11
Collegiality and/or interaction with tenure-stream faculty:
12
Committee work/Integration within larger institutional community:
13
Opportunities for leave:
14
Do you have the ability to design your own course/syllabi/book selection?
15

Your Story:
(Note: The text box below holds 3,500 characters. If you would like to include a more detailed description, please email your response to Dr. Bradley Hammer, FORUM Editor, at bhammer@unc.edu.)

16

Names of former institutions where you have been employed and the number of years spent at each:

17

Number of former institutions:

18

Reason(s) for leaving prior teaching post(s):

19
Do we have permission to quote you anonymously from this questionnaire?