The Challenges of Minoritized Contingent Faculty in Higher Education,

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The Challenges of Minoritized Contingent Faculty in Higher Education,

Author

Edna Chun ; Alvin Evans

Year

2024

Publisher

Purdue University Press

Language

English

Pages

ISBN

978-1-61249-839-3

Link

Last Update

18-Jan-2026

Keywords

Education ; Sociology

Description

The tragic story of Thea Hunter, a Black female academic who completed her doctorate in history at Columbia University, illustrates the struggles of adjunct faculty to survive in a tightening economy without sufficient financial resources or health insurance. According to her doctoral adviser, celebrated historian Eric Foner, Hunter’s dissertation that focused on the case of James Somerset, a Black man who escaped slavery and won his freedom at trial in England, was a pioneering analysis in the study of transatlantic law and slavery.¹

Following completion of her dissertation, Dr. Hunter assumed a tenure-line teaching position at Western Connecticut College but...