It's Movie Time! Grace Lee Boggs, An American Revolutionary

… is back, free to watch on PBS through January, a special P.O.V 30th Anniversary treat.

❝Grace Lee Boggs, 98, is a Chinese American philosopher, writer, and activist in Detroit with a thick FBI file and a surprising vision of what an American revolution can be. Rooted for 75 years in the labor, civil rights and Black Power movements, she challenges a new generation to throw off old assumptions, think creatively and redefine revolution for our times. Winner, Audience Award, Best Documentary Feature, 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival. A co-presentation with the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).❞

Midweek Movie Break: Chomsky on the #Corporatization of #HigherEd

…with an introductory visual from Tom Tomorrow and a background article on the Powell Memo that Chomsky refers to.

and now for the main feature....

Movie break w/ HT to #Adjunct Walkout Day: Road to #NAWD

…Rio actually. I'm collecting "road" and "walking" themed material to blog as part The Crosby/Hope Road pictures came to mind. Our "adjunct road" series starts with Road to Rio (1947). A wicked Vail played by Gale Sondergard (also associated with Salt of the Earth) is the arch-villain. There will be more "Road to..." movies between now and February 25, 2015. As far as I can tell, there's no hidden adjunct allegory, cautionary tale or subtext. Just a road, as in "the road is made by walking."

Road/walking poetry and other literature is another area I want to collect and post material for National Walkout Day: Kerouac, Frost, Machado, Rousseau, Benjamin (and his flâneur) I don't know about you, but from now to late February is a long, long time for me to live (and blog) on movement rhetoric, exhortations to organize, calls to build community and bridges, etc. Those roads are made by walking and connecting with other walkers, in my case, digitally. 

Halloween Special: Sunday at the Movies Double Feature

…with apologies for missing last week and extras to make up. Some Sundays, selections (Matinee or otherwise) are educational; others, entertainment. Our Movies for Precarious Faculty playlist abounds in the former...but not for every weekend and certainly not for Halloween. Even so, entertainment features are selected, not without irony, for subtext and metaphors relevant to our condition.

Tonight, we have vampires and zombies: Nosferatu and The Night of the Living Dead ~ videos below the fold. Don't try to tell me you have not seen both in the academic workplace.

Plus Cthulhu for commuters: H.P. Lovecraft audio collections and more from Open Culture.

Sunday Matinee: #Walkout…w/an #adjunct nod to #NAWD

OK so this late makes it more like Sunday Night at the Movies (which is classically
"Saturday Night at the Movies" anyway).

An #AdjunctWalkout is in the air (not for the first time since I've been covering this beat), last walkout we blogged was Wisconsin, February 17, 2011.  For the one coming, there is a Facebook page, a Twitter account and a few other links (nearly naked blog and equally sparse Facebook event page) that may or may not be related…more when someone sends it to us; if not, then not.

According to Wikipedia:
hence the film and links (below). The

In labor disputes, a walkout is a labor strike, the act of employees collectively leaving the workplace as an act of protest. A walkout can also mean the act of leaving a place of work, school, a meeting, a company, or an organization, especially if meant as an expression of protest or disapproval. 

A walkout can be seen as different from a strike in that a walkout can occur spontaneously, and need not necessarily involve all the workers present, whereas a strike is often voted on beforehand by the workers, giving notification both to all of the workers and to the company affected.  

The video Walkout the 2006 HBO movie based on the 1968 East Los Angeles Walkouts or Chicano Blowouts originally embedded in this post is no longer accessible. The student actions of 1968 inspired later protests that used similar tactics.

People's #ClimateMarch Sunday Matinee: #FrackOff & Disruption

#FrackOff  (video of September 20 livestreamed event) features activists Shelley A. Young, Kandi Mosset, Elle Maija Tailfeathers, and Ellen Gabriel who will discuss high-profile media campaigns by indigenous groups in Canada and the United States that protest the oil and fracking industries and the ongoing governmental violations of Tribal sovereignty and treaty rights.  

Sponsored by the School of Media Studies and co-organized in collaboration with Idle No More and Frack Action, a leading New York-based organization working for a statewide ban on fracking as a part of Climate Action Week at The New School. The New School demonstrates our commitment to climate action and our solidarity with people converging on New York City for the historic People’s Climate March on September 21 with a week-long series of events focused on climate change. 

Sunday Night at the Movies…Double Feature: Rashoman & His Girl Friday

…a drama and a comedy...watch both or whichever you are in the mood for.  Rashomon needs no introduction but I will anyway (below, reposted from Open Culture). I don't really need to tell you which is which, do I? Any subtext you care to extract from my choices is up to you. 

If you need a dose of the serious and informative, try an annotated links double header: much more than the immigration debate and about Ferguson ~ both from the Book Forum blog, Omnivore. 

Recently added to our blogroll: 

• author/poet/teacher/whatever Nathaniel C Oliver ("I Just Don't Want to Die an Adjunct"); 
• writer, teacher, mom, Midwesterner Buddhist Sonya Huber (Shadow Syllabus); \
• the name says it all ~ Bad Ass Teachers (The Death of Michael Brown, Teachers, and Racism: 10 Things Every Badass Teacher Needs To Understand), 
• Dr Michelle Kassorla (Refusing the Adjunct Route)
• former NMSU adjunct Carolyn Baker's Speaking Truth to Power

“Come on, Homer,” Marge Simpson once said to her husband before one of the cartoon family’s trips abroad, “Japan will be fun! You liked Rashomon.” Homer’s sullen reply: “That’s not how I remember it.”

a list of #adjunct bloggers on the #precariousfaculty blogroll

…precarity bloggers on the left sidebar consists of 65 blogs linked and listed below by name (followed by title of most recent post) in order of posting, with the most recent less than an hours ago and the oldest 6 months back. Inactive blogs, no matter how excellent get cut: if you blog, do try to post more often than once a year. Although only the 10 most recent posts display automatically, there is a "display all" link at the end of the blogroll. Many adjunct blogs are about adjunct issues -- but not all. Explore the collection ~ visit and comment. PS: These do not include the PFR blogs with viewer gadgets on this page: Precarity Dispatches, Equity in Diversity, Ana M Fores' Adjunct Justice; Adjunct Stories; Joe Berry's COCAL Updates.

Recent additions: Charles Bivona (@njpoet); Adjunct Sounding Board; Mark Carrigan; The Consulting Editor (@ProfessorF74); Gordon Haber; adjunct world comics; adjunct purgatory; Contingent Representation (CUNY); The Northern Issue.

Blog populations fluctuate. The average life span of a blog is three years, and most last less than a year. Listing earliest blogs would take some remembering and checking. The Adjunct Project (CUNY) is one: how fitting then for Sean Kennedy's Contingent Representation to be among the most recent...bookends.

precarity bloggers

Sunday Matinee: Chs 4 & 5: Organizing Boston & California

Barbara Wolf, Workplace 4.2

#adjunct organizing is A Simple Matter of Justice (Barbara Wolf, 2001). This Sunday's videos examine two noted cases and still relevant organizing models for regional and state, respectively.

Each Chapter focuses on the barriers, opportunities and organizing approaches being undertaken in a different situation. For example, Boston part-timers, through COCAL-Boston, are organizing on a regional basis because of the vast number of schools there, which may be the first US example of "metro strategy" later described by Joe Berry in Reclaiming the Ivory Tower. 

California community college part-time faculty, CPFA (California Part Time Faculty Association), are shown organizing statewide to change state laws. Sadly, the Boston page is gone, leaving no more than a a description in a Kairos article and dead link to a no longer existing website. The last Wayback Machine snapshot was May 1, 2003.  CPFA is still going strong: website, discussion list, quarterly journal, blog, Twitter, etc

COCAL-Boston: Regional Organizing (Boston) from Adjunct and Contingent on Vimeo.

About Boston Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor 

Sunday Matinee reruns: #LastProfessors revisited + next Barbara Wolf installment

…opens with taking our in-house Wayback Machine to Sunday, May 5, 2013 for movie break…last of the profs aka the great train wreck featuring the #adjunct as Gunga Din. Donoghue, interviewed about his 2008 book, says it's too late to turn back and that we've already passed the tipping point. Asked at the beginning of the interview above to describe last profs in ten words or less, he replies, "a train wreck with no survivors." The playlist is keyed to follow with parts 2 through 4 of the video interview. 

See also: Donoghue chapter in Keith Hoeller's Equality for Contingent Faculty and Stanley Fish on Last Profs, Opinionator, NYTimes 2009. PS...Henry Giroux interview on the corporatization of American education follows 

Now for our weekly pre-COCAL XI video from A Simple Matter of Justice series, accompanied by Chris Carter's 2002 Workplace Interview with Barbara Wolf, director of Degrees of Shame  (1997) and this series. This week's matinee closes with Chapter 3, "APBU: Joining a Full-time Faculty Union" (Canada). In many locations in Canada, part-time faculty are joining the full-time faculty union, but beginning with separate bargaining units. Next week's destinations Boston and Chicago

Movie Marathon: #Labor & #Adjunct Organizing…#NormaRae & #KeithHoeller

…A film festival! Let's make a marathon out of it. More from Barbara Wolf's A Simple Matter of Justice, plus classic labor movies. Here's a 2013 list from Freelancers Union by Sara Horowitz: 

... [of t]he best labor-related movies that'll make you want to fight for the underdog. Who doesn’t love movie night? People often ask me about my favorites, so I’ve put together a list of my top labor-related movies. Many of them are based on actual events. Of course they’ve been dramatized, Hollywood-style, but they're still great stories. Documentaries will come next. Enjoy!

.... Norma Rae (1979), this one's for @mmstrikesback

Sunday Night at the Movies…#Adjunct version

…which is to say, free viewing and BYOP. Depending on what I find in the vault. I'm thinking double feature. One socially/movement relevant but the other not in the least, just for fun. It's already been a serious day, what with a new #StandwithMaryFaith article on Democracy Chronicles about the fundraiser (donations, no #selfies please).

Whether or not you are going, COCAL XI is coming. With that in mind, movie night kicks off screening Barbara Wolf's 2001 A Simple Matter of Justice video series.

Introduction: Political & Economic History

Introduction: Political & Economic History from Adjunct and Contingent on Vimeo

Movietime for #adjunct activists

…and as a reminder about the Videos page here. The playlist stands at 105, not counting Barbara Wolf's A Simple Matter of Justice series and others on Vimeo or Left Forum videos to be added. To be honest, it's also because the post on uses of twitter (advocacy, learning/PD, fun) for adjuncts is not ready for prime time. 

We'll open with some music courtesy of the Colorado Adjuncts aka Front Range Community College AAUP...




Thomas Paine 1776 & NOW! Flanders-West-Hedges-Wolff, June 1 at Left Forum 2014 in New York City at John Jay College

BYOP & because it's the weekend: introducing @hewjrtaken

…H.E. Whitney Jr., whose Adjunct World video short shorts and comics on Facebook and Tumblr  create a comic odyssey detailing the fortunes of the Disposable Adjunct and Apartmentless Larry in higher education…plus digital art at Graphimetrix,

line of fire

0:34, line of fire, adjunct life, leaf blower

hungersaurus

0:42, An Assistant Dean's Demise

movie break

…now showing…last of the profs aka the great train wreck…still on topic…#academiclabor featuring the #adjunct as Gunga Din, post inspired by The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities by Frank Donoghue, Fordham UP, 2008, the  most recent entry in  the Academe blog series, Reviews of Recent Books Concerning Current Issues in Higher Education,

Donoghue thinks (2008) it's too late to turn back and that we've already passed the tipping point. Asked at the beginning of the interview above to describe last profs in ten words or less, he replies, "a train wreck with no survivors."

BYOP: we have a YouTube playlist

…6 hrs, 45 mins of videos, a lot of popcorn. We've been collecting videos about the adjunct life, higher education, academic workplace issues, activism and related topics. Normally, videos get blogged singly with the BYOP (bring your own popcorn) tag. With a total of 41 and four added just today, announcing the NewFacMajority video playlist is long overdue. So here it is.

Videos range from interviews, documentary trailers and news footage to xtranormal blasts. Reality and wry humor. We want to grow longer the list. Send your recommendations. Post the link to comments here, on our Facebook page or tweet them to @NewFacMajority

#adjuncts & #studentloandebt

…the movies, not just one. DIY this time, not BYOP. Unfortunately, there is still not much public awareness of student debt among NTT faculty. See for yourself: search  YouTube for "student debt crisis." Then add "adjunct" or "faculty" and search. Here's a chance to fill the information gap. Robert Applebaum, founder of million+ member grassroots student loan debt forgiveness movement challenges student loan debtors to create and submit videos. He writes,

ForgiveStudentLoanDebt is re-branding as "Student Debt Crisis" to reflect the fact that the reforms we seek are not limited to just forgiveness of loans, but a whole host of other steps that chip away at the status quo. 

I'm writing today to ask each of you to participate in our very first video submission challenge: create your own short video that we can use to spread our message in favor of fundamental reforms to the way in which higher education is paid for in this country.

BYOP: Degrees of Shame

Welcome to #CEW2011. Past midnight, Campus Equity Week is now officially underway. What could be more appropriate than to start the week with the film that is probably a CEW signature event. If your group is hosting an information table, set up a laptop to screen Degrees of Shame and other videos. A large HD monitor, if you can finagle one would be a plus. 


And if there is no table or special campus activity, don't let that stop you. Why not do something on your own or with a few colleagues? CEW originated as a grassroots, local initiative event. Share the video (and others ~ we'll be posting a playlist), blog it, host an informal movie night, ask your local Occupation to show it, email the link to the press with a cover letter (to the editor) and / or to legislators ~ and elsewhere.

Degrees of Shame from Barbara Wolf on Vimeo

In 1960 Edward R. Murrow made Harvest of Shame a television documentary about the plight of migrant farm workers. To Barbara Wolf the economic situation and working conditions of adjunct professors suggested an information economy parallel to migrant farm workers. 

Following the logic of Harvest of Shame, Wolf interviews a variety of adjunct faculty to make visible the working lives of these least respected but absolutely vital faculty members who now do more than 40% of the teaching in America's institutions of higher education. Interviews with university administration officials, union leaders, legislators, and other observers document both the problem and possible solutions.

Murrow concluded Harvest of Shame by asking his viewers to cultivate “an enlightened,aroused and perhaps angered public opinion” and to demand a change. Wolf sees her documentary as both informational and, in Murrow’s tradition, as a tool for change.

Adjunct Night at the Movies, BYOP

Your average (adjunct) college professor earns less than a sanitation worker..... 


Please take a few minutes to watch the video below about working conditions for adjunct faculty who comprise over 70% of the total teaching staff at the college in question. Appreciate the very "Network moment" courage too of someone, "mad as hell" and "not going to take this anymore!"  Then forward the It is indeed rare among the precariously employed. We're no John Galts, but Peter Finch's Howard Beale (unfortunate outcome not withstanding) suits.

Accompanying note:

"The gutting of higher education in America has resulted in a corporate model of employment utilizing affiliate college professors who earn less than garbage men and train conductors. This exploitation is reprehensible, immoral and indefensible. This abomination solely serves the interests of college presidents, boards of trustees and administrators at the highest level, while bankrupting teachers, adversely affecting students, tuition payers and ultimately all stakeholders in the educational arena. It must end."

What are your experiences? How do they compare? Are you ready to shout out, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" ? If not yet, when...

BYOP: CAW Survey video on ExtraNormal

Today opens the 2nd (and last) month for taking the CAW Survey. Don't let it stall midway through. If you haven't already, take it now. 20,000 have, but there are millions of us. Millions minus 20,000 slackers and procrastinators. Don't be one. Do you need a ribbon, a badge or a gold star?



Video heads up courtesy of AFTFACE. Please share ~ re-blog, forward, backlink, bookmark, review, vote for it on BuzzFlash, like and share on Facebook, and so on. Do you need a tutorial? That can be arranged.