Reflections on Faculty Life in a Pandemic

During the spring and summer, Academe invited a diverse group of faculty members to reflect on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their lives and work. Together, the stories collected here—about the shift to remote teaching and the battles over reopening, about the economic hardships now facing many students and faculty members, about the exhausting work on the front lines in university hospitals, and about AAUP organizing and solidarity—begin to paint a bigger picture of the collective experience of the pandemic in higher education.

We will continue to publish short firsthand accounts of faculty life during the pandemic on the Academe Blog in the coming months; visit https://academeblog.org/submissions for submission guidelines.

Care Is a Practice; Care Is Pedagogical
By Jess Stommel

The House of Cards
By an adjunct faculty member in the Northeast

Change Can Come Swiftly When We Rally Together
By Matthew Boedy

Reflections from the Battle Lines
By Teena Chopra

Black Women, Mutual Aid, and Union Organizing in the Time of COVID-19
By Donna Murch

Moving beyond Crisis
By Michele Hardesty

Owning the Fail
By a lecturer in Florida