Office Hours: Activism and Change in the Academy

Universities are in trouble. They face some tough choices about how to survive in our uncompromising times. In a series of stinging analyses this book tackles these issues head on. It argues that it's not enough to blame market forces or the indifference of politicians: academics can often be their own worst enemies. Universities are increasingly profit-driven, and the faculty seems increasingly passive in the face of political and economic pressures. This book examines the current sorry state of higher education and offers 'alternative futures' for the academy, visions that involve academic organizations, public outreach through the internet, faculty unionization, and campus organizing. Office Hours is a roll-up-your-sleeves look at the avoidable disaster facing the modern university. 'Straightforward, unpretentious, immensely readable, and on matters of extreme urgency to a very wide potential readership.' --Bruce Robbins, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University 'Office Hours is always pointed, often poetic and amusing, and never dull. Nelson and Watt accurately diagnose the serious malady that threatens American higher education, and then suggest the cure. Do read this book-it's a tonic.' --Jane Buck, President, American Association of University Professors 'Straightforward, unpretentious, immensely readable, and on matters of extreme urgency to a very wide potential readership' - Bruce Robbins, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University 'Office Hours is always pointed, often poetic and amusing, and never dull. Nelson and Watt accurately diagnose the serious malady that threatens American higher education, and then suggest the cure. Do read this book-it's a tonic - Jane Buck, President, American Association of University Professors

Table of Contents:
Introduction; Part 1 Part One Where We Are and How We Got There; Chapter 1 1. Cohorts — The Diaspora of the Teachers; Chapter 2 2. Anonymity, Celebrity, and Professional Identity; Chapter 3 3. The Postdoc Paradox; Chapter 4 4. Disciplining Debt; Chapter 5 5. The Brave New World of Research Surveillance; Chapter 6 6. The Humanities and the Perils of Globalization; Part 2 Part Two Toward Alternative Futures; Chapter 7 7. Organizational Affiliation and Change; Chapter 8 8. Is It a University or Is It a Country Club?; Chapter 9 9. Collective Action, Collective Bargaining, Collective Agency; Chapter 10 10. The Economics of Textbook Reform; Chapter 11 11. Transforming Teaching and Reaching the Public on the Internet; Chapter 12 12. What Would an Ethical Graduate Program Be?;

About the Author :
Cary Nelson is Jubilee Professor of English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Stephen Watt is Chair of the Department of English, Indiana University. They are coauthors of Academic Keywords, also published by Routledge.

Review :
"Straightforward, unpretentious, immensely readable, and on matters of extreme urgency to a very wide potential readership ." -- Bruce Robbins, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University "Office Hours is always pointed, often poetic and amusing, and never dull. Nelson and Watt accurately diagnose the serious malady that threatens American higher education, and then suggest the cure. Do read this book-it's a tonic ." -- Jane Buck, President, American Association of University Professors "Readers will find the book a refreshingly personal take on the high stakes of activism in the academy." -- Heather M. Steffen, Carnegie Mellon University