“Hills and Hollers: The Challenges and Kinship of Academic Life off the Tenure Track,” the University’s first virtual conference focused specifically on the experiences of non-tenure track faculty, kicks off at noon Thursday (June 29) with a keynote presentation free to the WVU community.
“The Future Landscape for Contingent Faculty” by Adrianna Kezar, a national expert on change, governance and leadership in higher education, is free and open to all at WVU.
Watch the keynote presentation on Zoom.
The “Hills and Hollers” virtual conference – hosted by Service Professor Nathalie Singh-Corcoran and Teaching Professor Lisa Di Bartolomeo with support from the WVU Office of the Provost – aims to facilitate connections among non-tenure track faculty, promote best practices, identify areas of concern, and provide guidelines for improving work cultures. The two-day event will include panel discussions, roundtables and networking sessions.
Kezar is director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California. The center annually recognizes important achievements among contingent faculty, and the conference will include some of the awardees for the past year from Skidmore College.
“We recognize that often faculty who are not on the tenure track lack networks of support and mentorship, as well as opportunities to learn from one another’s experiences with campus organizing and advocacy,” Di Bartolomeo said. “Nathalie and I have helped build an on-campus group over the course of many years and felt it was time to reach out to a larger audience. Folks at a variety of institutions are raising their voices, getting noticed for their achievements, and advocating for their colleagues. This conference offers a way to lift up all the great work being done.”
Di Bartolomeo also highlighted the affordability and accessibility of the “Hills and Hollers” conference. The conference sessions mirror typical opportunities for interaction at a traditional, face-to-face conference coupled with the ease and low cost of virtual delivery.
“Making this conference affordable was among our priorities, and we are hoping that graduate students will participate as well, since many of them will consider non-tenure track positions when they graduate,” she said. “The sessions for “Hills and Hollers” will help them start to navigate that world.”
General registration remains open for the entire conference at the regular rate of $40.
“The Provost’s Office has generously unwritten the conference, and we appreciate their support in this important work,” Singh-Corcoran said. “We couldn’t have done it without their help and funding.”
Find additional details about the conference, the full schedule and links to the registration site.
For questions, contact NonTTFaculty@mail.wvu.edu.