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Adjunct Voices

Stories from men and women on the battle lines of a changing academic world.

Help us document the broad range of diversity in the adjunct experience. If you would like to be considered for our ongoing video series, please send us an email that includes your name, the place or places where you teach, and a summary of your life as an adjunct. Or, pitch your story in video on Instagram.

An Adjunct Struggles to Get on the Tenure Track

By Ron Coddington July 17, 2013

“I’m one of the younger ones that seems stuck here,” explains Shannon Berry, an adjunct professor in the Washington, D.C., area who has been frustrated in her efforts to secure a tenure-track position. “It feels a bit like a glass ceiling. You can see these other full-time professor positions, and you’re qualified for them,” she says, but the rigors of teaching leave little time for her to finish her dissertation in systematic theology, much less publish articles that she is expected to produce to qualify for a better job. “It starts to feel sometimes like a, almost like an abusive relationship. Like I’ve given a great deal of my time and my life and my energy into this system that, at the end of the day is just slamming doors in my face.”

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“I’m one of the younger ones that seems stuck here,” explains Shannon Berry, an adjunct professor in the Washington, D.C., area who has been frustrated in her efforts to secure a tenure-track position. “It feels a bit like a glass ceiling. You can see these other full-time professor positions, and you’re qualified for them,” she says, but the rigors of teaching leave little time for her to finish her dissertation in systematic theology, much less publish articles that she is expected to produce to qualify for a better job. “It starts to feel sometimes like a, almost like an abusive relationship. Like I’ve given a great deal of my time and my life and my energy into this system that, at the end of the day is just slamming doors in my face.”

Video and editing by Greg Kahn; produced by Rose Engelland

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
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About the Author
Ron Coddington
Ron Coddington leads the Visuals and Data team at The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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