E81: Academic Labor Solidarity (w/ Dr. James J. Brown, Jr.)

re:verb

On today’s episode, we’re thrilled to be joined once again by friend-of-the-show Dr. Jim Brown, Jr., Associate Professor of English and Director of the Digital Studies Center at Rutgers-Camden. While Jim is mainly known to us as an expert in digital rhetorical studies, today we speak to him about his experience as outgoing president of the Camden chapter of Rutgers’ faculty union, the AAUP-AFT, amid its recent historic labor strike and contract negotiations. The Rutgers faculty strike was a massive success, earning pay increases and structural bargaining changes that will redound not only to the benefit of Rutgers’ precarious faculty but also to colleagues at peer institutions–including, perhaps, at your own university, listener!

In a wide-ranging conversation, Calvin picks Jim’s brain about the general duties of serving as a union chapter president, the events leading up to the April strike (including the university president’s threat of a legal injunction), the details of the union’s victories, the broader issue of neoliberalism in academic labor, and the challenges of forging solidarity across so many different job categories (e.g. tenure-track faculty, non-tenure track teaching faculty, adjunct faculty, graduate faculty, and graduate researchers–all across many different disciplines). Finally, Jim explains how he applied his rhetorical training to the strike and negotiations, and how the strike and negotiations continue to influence his digital rhetoric research.

Works and Concepts Referenced in this episode:

Brown, J. (2015). Ethical programs: Hospitality and the rhetorics of software. University of Michigan Press.

Chronicle of Higher Ed: Rutgers’ President Threatened to Take Striking Instructors to Court. Then He Walked It Back.

DuFord, R. (2022). Solidarity in conflict: A democratic theory. Stanford University Press.

Eric Blanc on Twitter: Rutgers workers sing “Hey Holloway”

Murch, D. J. (2010). Living for the city: Migration, education, and the rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California. UNC Press Books.

NBC News: Rutgers University reaches deal with faculty unions to end historic strike

The Progressive: The Rutgers Strike is a Turning Point for Higher Ed

Rutgers Office of the President: Regarding the Faculty Unions’ Strike

Rutgers historian Dr. Donna Murch on Democracy Now!

State of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s Office: Governor Murphy Announces Framework Agreement Between Rutgers University Administration and Labor Union Representatives

An accessible transcript of this episode can be found here (via Otter.ai)