The key education, labor and professional issues that higher education faculty and staff face today will be the subject of ongoing scholarship and public debate through a new publication the AFT will launch next year. Called Academic Labor, the annual journal will compile scholarly articles based on a theme of broad concern to the community. The journal will have an editorial advisory board, and papers will go through a peer-review process.

The editor of Academic Labor will be Mitchell Vogel, professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Educational Leadership at Northeastern Illinois University. Vogel is past president of the University Professionals of Illinois/AFT and a former AFT higher education program and policy council member.

Each issue will present aspects of the identified theme from the perspective of an academic union, although the journal will welcome articles from a wide variety of contributors in many disciplines and from inside and outside the labor movement.

CALL FOR PAPERS
The first issue will have as its theme, "the impact of the market-oriented academic and managerial policies on scholarly work across the disciplines," says Vogel. Articles might pursue such issues as how changes in the academic personnel structure--for example, the use of part-time and contingent faculty--have affected scholarly research. Does the increase in corporate sponsored research have an effect on the nature of biomedical or other hard science research?

Writers from all disciplines are encouraged to submit proposals by the deadline of June 30, 2003. Those accepted will be notified by August 1, with papers to be submitted by Nov. 1.  [Barbara McKenna / AFT On Campus]

[May 21, 2003]