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In "Complicating Composition," the introduction to Under Construction: Working at the Intersections of Composition Theory, Research, and Practice, Christine Farris and Chris Anson write: "Composition, in seeking a disciplinary identity, is questioning the ways it creates and mediates knowledge and the ways in which that knowledge informs and is informed by various contexts for research and practice" (1). Farris and Anson credit the rapid transformations of the field to "the inevitable burgeoning of a theoretically interdisciplinary field with a strong orientation toward self-reflection" (1). This article, thus, will focus on how our act of self-reflection illuminated the transitional and transactional phases that were so critical to our developing identities as composition practitioners. In particular, we are interested in exploring how the label "compositionist" informs the institutional status and pro- fessional identities of those who do, don't, or even perhaps aren't allowed to claim it. We hope this article will provoke discussions on how the field of composition often constructs non-tenure track faculty, as not only adjuncts to the institution but as-even more problematically for us-adjuncts to the field of composition studies.
Adjunct Teaching
The negative aspects of the adjunct professor experience have garnered much attention, but perhaps the most disheartening part of our research for this article was discovering that so little has seemed to change in the adjunct experience from what has been described in scholarship from decades past. In Eileen Schell's Gypsy Academics and Mother-Teachers, published in 1998, we see work narratives from adjuncts that sound almost identical to the laments we hear over coffee with our adjunct colleagues today. And while substandard economic conditions seem to be the first complaint of many of our fellow adjunct professors, many feel it is the alienation and isolation of the position that is most troubling. For composition adjuncts, this alienation results in a sense of disciplinary hypocrisy-in our classrooms, we battle the systematic alienation of students who lack certain social privileges only to be alienated ourselves for our own lack of socio-professional privileges. This sense of hypocrisy also results in a not-so-subtle anger that tints the theorizing of our adjunct work. An example of this anger can be seen in Jody Norton's "Reason, Responsibility, and the Post-Tenure University: Theorizing the Role of the Adjunct Professor"...