Opinion

It's time to rethink the role of professors in a way that focuses on student learning and moves past the divide between those on and off the tenure track, write Adrianna Kezar, Susan Albertine and Dan Maxey.

A new correspondent writes: "I wondered if I could crowdsource a request for advice from a colleague trying to find a full-time academic job. She finished her PhD a little while ago and has strong references from two prominent faculty members at her graduate institution. For 6 years, she has been doing part-time teaching work at another university that has only two full-time faculty in her discipline: one she doesn't get along with at all (through no fault of her own), but the other is great and has written reference letters for her in the past. However, my colleague just saw one of these letters and it was all of two paragraphs long with nothing of substance to say."

I read Harvest Moon's beautiful essay "Quitting an Adjunct Career" with both sadness and a sense of familiarity. Like Harvest, I also trained as a sociologist, and have taught numerous sociology courses outside of the tenure track. Like Harvest, I also made the decision to not engage in anymore adjunct teaching - as the rewards for doing so have become inadequate to the opportunity costs inherent in the incredibly time and energy consuming task of teaching. And like Harvest, I also deeply miss the many joys of teaching.

Let me start by staying I do not aspire to perfection. (If you've ever seen my house you will know that this is a gross understatement.) So you would think I'd be in complete agreement with Barnard President Debora Spar, whose recent piece in Newsweek is titled, "Why Women Should Stop Trying to Be Perfect." Spar's piece is accessible, clear, and often grimly funny in the way people sharing parenting stories can be. She writes of delivering a lecture in a suit that smelled of baby vomit, of slipping out of meetings to attend piano recitals, of missing track meets when a deadline loomed. I get it: she's been there, she's juggled home and family, and she has the scars to prove it.

Philip Nel explains how publishing, technology and opportunism helped him make the transition sought by so many.

Alan Liu and William G. Thomas III see opportunities for programs with the right strategies -- opportunities that may be especially valuable amid all of the cuts faced by so many departments.

How do you bring visuals into your classroom?

Why do people continue to apply to, and attend, nothing-special doctoral programs in the humanities and social sciences?