10 Contingent Labor and the Contradictions of Asian American Studies

Abstract:This essay grapples with the ways in which contingent labor complicates and subverts the otherwise radical politics of Asian American studies. Alternately known as "adjuncts," "lecturers," or the popular misnomer, "part-time faculty," these academic laborers occupy both a central place in the field and the margins of the academy. Through an excavation of the origins of Asian American studies, the restructuring of academic labor, and the lived experiences of contingent faculty, the essay identifies how their treatment unsettles some of the most common discourses in the field as an intellectual project and university entity while catalyzing possibilities for change.