Here is the link to an essay I wrote in the spring of 2015 when I was asked to offer some perspective on the national discussion over the exploitation of contingent faculty in American higher education. Dispirited by the rancor I had witnessed at the MLA in Chicago the previous year, and in particular the cyber-stalking of Rosemary Feal by over-zealous protesters, I decided to take a more discrete tone, and the “long view. I would add that, heartened by recent labor victories in Pittsburgh and elsewhere – but primarily in Pittsburgh – I wrote this essay to essay the perspective offered by literary history insofar as it tempers, but also guides discussion.
http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/adjunct-professors-and-the-myth-of-prestige