Center for the
Education of
Women
University of
Michigan
330 E. Liberty St.
Ann Arbor, MI
48103
734.764.6005
Research in Progress
Contingent Faculty in a Tenure-Track World
The ranks of contingent faculty are a growing and heterogeneous group of academics who assume their roles for various professional and personal reasons. In order to understand more fully the lives of over two-thirds of today’s college and university faculty, the Center for the Education of Women proposes to continue our work by talking directly with contingent faculty members—in order to hear, in their own words, their experiences with, perceptions of, and suggestions for their work, their workplaces, and the policies and practices that determine their worklives.
The project will use qualitative methods, including collecting data through focus groups and individual interviews, combined with analysis of policy documents and other “official” writings of specific higher education institutions. It will build upon research previously funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in that it will have a focus on schools identified as providing more positive environments for contingent faculty and it will include schools from which we have recent data from institutional surveys.
As a result of this analysis, we will be able to inform academic administrators (from deans to provosts, along with human resources administrators) and organizations such as unions interested in the concerns of contingent faculty, about what faculty themselves see as key practices, policies, or environmental factors that lead to satisfying careers and jobs. We will be able to disseminate the “voices of contingent faculty” about useful policies and practices.
With knowledge of specific practices on campus and of institutional efforts and attitudes towards contingent faculty we can compare whether indeed such efforts are effective according to contingent faculty themselves.
CEW Research
From its inception, CEW has included research among its activities, exploring the lives of women, issues related to women's educational and employment options, and leadership. Through its research, CEW enriches our understanding of gender, improves practice and influences on policy development. CEW’s research program covers the adjacent areas of interest.