The Contingent Professor | Tenure? They still do that? | News, Commentary, and Interviews for PhDs Trying the Professor Life

Perfect Enemies: Rob and Daniel catch up after another long hiatus. Points on perfection, online fatigue, and Daniel's ever growing hair.

Cov-Ed. Daniel and Rob talk (remotely) for the first time since lockdown. Listen to them catch up, talk covid, and discuss issues related to teaching and community in the bizarre year of 2020.

Empty Halls. Daniel and Rob sit down to talk about the trend of working outside the office during "business hours" to get things done, and what it means to university culture. (Standard disclaimers)

Daniel and Rob do some overdue venting as a new academic year moves along. From getting to do a faculty search to isolating 5 student classroom types. A little catharsis goes a long way. (Standard disclaimers)

Just a blurb. Daniel and Rob try to make a blurb for another podcast and fall into an episode ranging from past lab experiences, to debriefing another end of semester, to new attempts at online programs. Needless to say, the blurb didn't pan out. (Standard disclaimers: especially the part about our views and our employer's views. They aren't equal.)

Bleeping New Material. Daniel and Rob with a new SD card and an almost end of semester podcast. When do you stop introducing new material in class? And what's the point of academic publishing? (Standard disclaimers: especially the part about our views and our employer's views. They aren't equal.)

Copywrite Error. Bonus Episode. Daniel starts ranting and Rob grabs the microphones for a shortened episode about figure captions and attribution in books. Daniel notices a "write error" on the recorder and tries to save the episode. (Standard disclaimers: especially the part about our views and our employer's views. They aren't equal.)

Spring Break. Daniel and Rob finally have some time right before spring break to chat up on what's been happening during the semester. Daniel talks about what it's like to teach a no-prerequisite quantitative reasoning course, while Rob is keen to speak on the college admission scandal. (Standard disclaimers: especially the part about our views and our employer's views. They aren't equal.)

Listen to my podcast. Daniel and Rob squeeze one last podcast into the year. In this episode they talk about the many roles of the professor, student evals, with a quick Q&A from student X or Y, and Rob's welcome message to new faculty--which involves telling them to listen to the podcast. (Standard disclaimers: especially the part about our views and our employer's views. They aren't equal.)

Pop-up podcast. Rob makes Daniel make a podcast. In this episode they talk about pop-up courses and a controversial one that caused a slight national stir. What place do these have in different fields and do contingents dare run them? (Standard disclaimers: especially the part about our views and our employer's views. They aren't equal.)

Attention span and other things. Daniel and Rob make another podcast! This time about the attention span myth (TED talks? Blah) and a little bit about how your brain processes information. Plus, Rob gets distracted by his phone. (Standard disclaimers. Especially the part about our views and our employers' views. Not necessarily the same.)

Daniel and Rob find some time before the semester to podcast about winding up a new academic year. Standard disclaimers.

Daniel and Rob dust off the mics to wind down another semester. (Standard disclaimers.)  

Daniel and Rob catch up as the semester starts and work through some rust to talk about the student as consumer model. (Standard disclaimers.)  

Daniel and Rob start a new season talking about the end of another semester and trials and tribulations of trying to get a new class enrolled. The big theme for this episode is the role of math testing in determining class placement and why it matters to departments outside of mathematics. They end with a small preview of the upcoming season. (Standard disclaimers.)  

Daniel and Rob come together for an in-between season podcast to catch up. Keeping the riff to about an hour this time, Daniel and Rob talk about what it takes to write a book, what you can try to negotiate if you are lucky enough to secure a tenure-track contract, and briefly about the BLS and what we can tell our students about employment potential based on current hiring stats. Standard disclaimer (eg. opinions our own, meant to entertain).

Rob takes over the show and talks about Russia every chance he gets. Daniel tries to refocus on more academic topics, like promotion, more student engagement, and potential teaching activities. With only moderate success. Standard Disclaimer Applies.

Daniel and Rob sit down to talk about controversial and taboo topics faced in the workplace and in the classroom by adjuncts, non TTs, and TTs. They spend a good chunk of time talking about an adjunct account and the learning style myth, ending with a top 10 of topics to consider. (Standard disclaimers apply.)

Daniel and Rob, stemming from a not so great student evaluation, discuss the state of etiquette in the classroom and (perhaps) the need for more detailed and explicit guidelines for how students should expect to behave in the class and out. Everything is laid out, from salutations, to email form, to the employer's desire for better soft skills from recent graduates.  (Standard disclaimers apply.)

Daniel and Rob start out the summer break with a discussion on how to plot out trajectories for research and teaching and the implications for those on and off the tenure track. After the regular back forth on the topic, they finish off with a little bit on tenure myths.  (Standard disclaimers apply.)

Daniel and Rob sit down to talk about the noticeable decline in attendance as the semester wanes and discuss strategies on how to combat that effect, looking at k-12 and higher ed examples. But first, they highlight some of the goings on in higher ed with respect to adjunct wages and state system shenanigans. (Standard disclaimers apply.)

Daniel and Rob cut a mini-episode where they talk briefly about what academic deans actually do. It's brief because even after reading about it, they still don't know. (Standard disclaimers apply.)

Daniel and Rob sit down during spring break to talk a bit about mentors and their importance, as well as the growing trend to go academic rogue and what that means (inspired by the blog postings of a rogue linguist, Alison Edwards). But first, Daniel can't help but clue Rob in on academic twitter and a firestorm that happened when an undergrad said something about granting extensions. (Standard disclaimers apply.)

Daniel and Rob carve out a little more time to continue their talk about the annual review process, with some additional discussion spent on goal setting and the departmental review process. But first things first, Daniel finds literature to support his problem with multitasking.

Daniel and Rob catch up during a small break in another hectic academic semester to rant a little about the ups and downs of the annual process, before talking about tips Rob collected at a workshop for teaching and engaging students using different modes and strategies. (Standard warnings/disclaimers apply.)

Daniel and Rob talk with Michael Boudewyns, a professional actor/storyteller and lecturer in the theatre department. An engaging and unscripted take on Academia from the perspective of a creative. (Standard warnings/disclaimers apply.)

Daniel and Rob fit one last ep into 2016 and discuss the really bizarre world of normalizing adjunct status at the institutional level by processes and methods known as onboarding. Daniel and Rob go back and forth trying to figure out if this is a good thing or if it further exploits a precious resource. Special end of year outro for those that manage to get through the podcast! (Standard warnings/disclaimers apply.)

Daniel and Rob wind down the fall semester with a revisit to the Millennial topic. This time they talk about anti-Millennial productivity hacks and discuss the entry of Millennials into the Higher Ed ranks. Longer episode to decompress after an equally long fall semester. (Standard warnings/disclaimers apply.)

Short Week Sillies. Daniel and Rob catch up before the Thanksgiving break and psychoanalyze a random web post that Daniel had printed out, stuck on his door, but never actually read. (Standard disclaimers apply.)

Episode 106: Internships, Schminternships. Daniel and Rob talk about the (old) new buzz in undergrad education: internships. What are they really? How have they changed? How do Millennials view them? Are Adjuncts interns? (All jokes in good fun, not meant to offend.)

Daniel and Rob discuss a (really long) presentation that Rob developed about the need for decency as an Academic Chair in order to create good departmental culture. Daniel whines only a little bit about his job, mostly so Rob can feel good about mentoring his young apprentice. (All jokes in good fun, not meant to offend)

Changing Academics, Changing Academia. Daniel and Rob piece together a picture of changing attitudes and demographics in Academia. A useful synthesis of where it is and where it is likely going for phds, postdocs, and mid career folks alike.   (Views are ours, jokes meant to be in good fun.)

Another Contingent Story. Daniel and Rob finally lock down another interview! This time with Lisa, a humanities PhD/Adjunct, discussing her path to contingency. Topics range from why get a PhD in the first place, to the limits of choosing place over career, to how to cope with the realities of contingency once established.  Some good laughing, too! (Views are ours, jokes meant to be in good fun.)

Still coping with contingency. Inspired by new podcasts covering the AltAc genre, Daniel and Rob continue their look into what contingency means for academic types in the broader context of the new normal of a global contingent workforce. We even got to use the new beep button for a Rob-ism. (Views are ours, jokes meant to be in good fun)

Teaching Millennials. Daniel and Rob (and a cricket) bring in a new season and academic year with early semester vibes from a student body at the meaty part of the Millennial generation.  (Views are ours, jokes meant to be in good fun.)

Episode 009: Last Days of Summer (No!). Daniel and Rob wrap up Season 0, talking about how to prepare for another academic year. But, first, they discuss a recent New York Times article about how there are too many Research Scientists for Academia.

Episode 008: Flipping (off) the Classroom. Daniel and Rob talk about a new trend in academia: flipped teaching. As they discuss if the strategy really works, they reach the conclusion that it might not even matter. Higher Ed seems to want to bundle and unbundle courses that can be delivered online and to the masses, with apparently little consideration for the content creators and providers, i.e. the faculty. What does this all mean and how do contingent faculty fit into this? More importantly, Daniel and Rob discuss the need for a sponsor. (disclaimer: all views expressed are, of course, our own)

Episode 007: Why You Should Be An Adjunct (?!?!) Daniel and Rob talk about a great tweet they found, leading them to talk about the Adjunct position from the perspective of working professionals that teach a class on the side. It sparks talk about other items currently on the minds of Daniel and Rob during the dog days of summer. (disclaimer: all views expressed are, of course, our own. we try hard not to offend too much!)

Episode 006: Rate My Effective Efficient Professors. Daniel and Rob discuss the first few chapters of an old gem of a book, The Effective, Efficient Professor by Prof. Phillip Wankat. From mission statements to setting goals, Rob and Daniel banter back and forth about how to be a somewhat competent prof. But first, they start with a goofy look at the Rate My Professors website.

Episode 005: Professoriate 2050. Daniel and Rob wrap up the "what does contingent mean to me?" question, looking at the latest AAUP report about the Professoriate in 2050, discussing an old UNC - Chapel Hill initiative on assimilating adjuncts into the faculty, and providing proper orientation for contingent faculty types. We also left in Daniel's cough attack just to keep in Rob's cheesy frog joke. (Standard disclaimer: all views are our own, even if they seem to be universally true.)

Episode 004: Interview with "Joe Colleague." Daniel and Rob talk to their colleague Joe and learn about his wacky journey from PhD to contingency, with advice for those trying to hack it, too. (Standard disclaimer applies: All views expressed are our own.) 

Episode 003: Quit Lit and the conflict of staying or leaving. Daniel and Rob talk about the conflicting sentiments of tenured faculty leaving academia and broadcasting it via social media versus the droves of contingent faculty still hoping to earn a spot in the Ivory Tower.

Episode 001: Daniel and Rob talk about what tenure and contingency mean to them and the motivation for the show. (The standard "all views expressed are our own and only our own" applies here.)