Labor historians’ concern about precarious and contingent labor has deepened in recent years. Marcel van der Linden’s provocative “San Precario” essay in Labor and a special issue of International Labor and Working-Class History titled “Precarious Labor in Global Perspectives” illustrate this scholarly interest.1 At the same time, the upsurge of contingent labor in higher education—now numbering approximately 70 percent of the faculty at two- and four-year institutions—elicits increasing attention from labor scholars, campus activists, labor organizers, and professional academic organizations.
In the fall of 2015, LAWCHA president Nancy MacLean and I sent out a request for adjuncts and contingent faculty to serve on an ad hoc committee.2 As the call stated, “All of us would agree that LAWCHA needs to continue making itself into an organization that fosters full participation by adjuncts and contingent faculty. Moving along these lines will make LAWCHA a stronger organization. And as an...