Breaking the Silence: The Unionization of Postdoctoral Workers at the University of California

Camacho, Sayil; Rhoads, Robert A.

doi:10.1353/jhe.2015.0010

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The incentives of faculty members to hire postdocs are clear. Some postdocs feel abused by these financial and work‐related realities and have formed labour unions, as in the University of California system, with 6500 postdocs in UAW Local 5810 (Camacho and Rhoads, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Postdoc Queue: A Labour Force in Waiting

2018

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Postdoctoral fellows (postdocs) comprise a large sector of the US scientific workforce. A substantial majority of postdocs are in a holding pattern, seeking tenure‐track assistant professorships. We model the postdoc population as a labour force in waiting—in queue. Postdocs enter the queue as they start their first postdoctoral appointment, and they leave in one of two ways: (i) obtaining the ‘queue service’ desired by the majority of postdocs, that is, an assistant professorship, or (2) reneging from the queue and seeking other positions. Using recent data from the US Survey of Doctorate Recipients, we show that the postdoc queue is one of those rare queueing systems where most of the queuers eventually renege rather than receive service. We find that only about 17% of postdocs ultimately land tenure‐track positions. The mean time in queue (postdoc career length) is 2.9 years, with significant variations across disciplines. We discuss policy implications. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Number of postdocs in the US by major field 1987–2014. Data source: Survey of Doctorate Recipients (National Science Foundation, ). [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Postdoc Queue: A Labour Force in Waiting

2018

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“…As a major education hub in Asia, Malaysia is known for its openness to international higher education (Morgan, 2016) as demonstrated by the establishment of international campuses of British and Chinese universities and the enrolment of international students. Internationalisation as a feature of research universities takes its cue from the idealised Emerging Global Model (Mohrman, Ma and Baker, 2008) based on universities in the United States (Camacho and Rhoads, 2015). As I have discussed above, there are several continuities between the freelance academic in Malaysia and adjuncts in American and Canadian universities.…”

Section: The Way Forward? Mobilising Academic Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are indeed challenges that lie ahead of mobilising for better work conditions for the freelance academic that are different from other forms of labour that seek similar demands. In a march towards privatisation and commercialisation, universities have become the site in which intellectual labour is "hyper-individualised" (Camacho and Rhoads, 2015) which makes communitybuilding and collective bargaining a challenge. Teaching in higher education has traditionally been regarded as middle-class, white collar work with high social status and cultural capital.…”

Section: The Way Forward? Mobilising Academic Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, academic labour within higher education is often framed as a form of "exceptionalism" whereby overwork with few returns or compensation is regarded as a sacrifice to the vocation. However, as Camacho and Rhoads (2015) note, assumptions of exceptionalism simply reinforce the myth that academia is a traditionally democratic and egalitarian space.…”

Section: The Way Forward? Mobilising Academic Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Precarious Intellectuals: The Freelance Academic in Malaysian Higher Education

Izharuddin¹

2018

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What is the impact of the rising class of the academic precariat-defined as academic workers contracted to teach and conduct research on short-term, zerohour contracts-on Malaysia's rapid industrialisation of higher education? This article seeks to illuminate the employment pattern of this growing class of insecure academic labour at a time when there is a decline in tenured appointments and academic positions for new PhD graduates in Malaysia. The work environment of the academic precariat is characterised as flexible at best and exploitative at worst; an average academic precariat may experience a drop in wages commensurable with their qualification and experience, lack of employment benefits and office hours, and "docility" under the disciplinary management of a neoliberal institution. This article also seeks a sensitive reading of how freelance academics understand themselves by highlighting their affective or emotional labour and whose experiences are specifically shaped by insecurity, vulnerability and uncertainty. Taking a sociological approach to examining this phenomenon, this article argues that the rise of the academic precariat can be attributed to the discursive climate within and at the peripheries of Malaysian higher education that operates alongside the restructuring of funds into higher institutions of learning. Such a discursive climate surrounds the unstable semantic reproduction of the designation "academic" and its catch-all usage to describe individuals within and at the peripheries of academia. Arguing that the rise of the academic precariat is a bleak indication of the state of higher education in Malaysia, this article closes with strategies for mobilising resistance and marshalling support through the strengthening of unions for full-time, part-time and freelance academics.

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(Mis)alignments between postdoctoral and supervisors' perceptions of mentorship competencies in engineering and computer science

Bahnson,

Ross,

Berdanier

2024

J of Engineering Edu

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BackgroundPostdoctoral training holds an increasingly important place in preparation for leading academic and research positions. While little empirical research has described postdoctoral training beyond the sciences, across all fields, “misaligned expectations” are often touted as a key source of postdoctoral strife.Purpose/HypothesisThis article describes mentorship competency beliefs within engineering and computer science fields, which increasingly engage in postdoctoral training.Design/MethodAn embedded mixed‐methods design was used to quantitatively identify mentorship profiles from survey data using latent profile analysis (LPA) from a sample of n = 118 postdoctoral scholars and n = 165 postdoctoral supervisors. Qualitative thematic analysis of interviews with n = 29 postdoctoral scholars and n = 20 postdoctoral supervisors was used to identify meaning in the differences between quantitative profiles. The combination of LPA with thematic analysis enabled the triangulation of distinct postdoctoral mentorship profile definitions.ResultsLPA identified six postdoctoral fellow profiles and four supervisor profiles, which became clearly definable through thematic analysis. Postdoc profiles included Technical Manager, Autonomy Focused Advisor, Stretched Mentor, Well‐Rounded Mentor, Exemplar Mentor, and Leader‐Mentor, while supervisor profiles included Autonomous Mentor, Reflective Mentor, Research Lab Mentor, and Confident Leader‐Mentor. Some of these are aligned, but several are not, giving insight into the phenomenon of “misaligned expectations” in postdoctoral literature.ConclusionsThe mentorship profiles illustrate the misalignment in expectations, which leads to negative mentorship experiences for many postdoctoral scholars.

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Breaking the Silence: The Unionization of Postdoctoral Workers at the University of California

Abstract: This article examines the postdoctoral unionization movement at the University of Cali

Cited by 22 publications

References 33 publications

The Postdoc Queue: A Labour Force in Waiting

The Postdoc Queue: A Labour Force in Waiting

Precarious Intellectuals: The Freelance Academic in Malaysian Higher Education

(Mis)alignments between postdoctoral and supervisors' perceptions of mentorship competencies in engineering and computer science

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