Addressing Precarity in the Profession

Abstract

A new ad hoc working group has emerged from Council discussions about employment prospects for historians. This Working Group on Precariously Employed and Non-Tenured Track Historians will be coordinated with, and integrated into, the “outreach” portfolio of the CHA. The working group reflects both continuing trends and changing economic realities for historians. In the former case, many historians have long been employed in a range of jobs in research, government, heritage, NGOs, and more. We recognize that those areas of employment may become more and more important to history PhDs as changes in post-secondary education have led to fewer full-time, permanent positions, a veritable shrinking of the university professoriate. This fact of life seems unassailable. As data taken from the Council of Ontario Universities, recently published on the CHA indicate, the percentage of teaching done by those with tenure-track jobs is barely a majority: “55% of courses and student enrolments are taught by full-time faculty members, ….At the undergraduate level…part-time instructors… teach 46% of students and 50% of courses.” The increasing use of precarious labour in the university sector is only one factor reshaping the profession; another is the sad reality that many history departments are facing shrinkages as universities’ put fewer resources into the Humanities.