Rhetoric and Resistance in the Corporate Academy

Rhetoric and Resistance in the Corporate Academy analyzes the political and legal struggles between labor movements and school administrators over the rise of part-time and temporary jobs in higher education. Focusing particular attention on the labor of writing instruction, Carter finds among literacy workers both a deeply exploited segment of the campus population and a vector of resistance to the hegemony of flexible hiring. Contrary to visions of ivory tower seclusion, he traces continuities between teachers' and students' experiences as corporate employees, contending that their frequently insecure positions, inadequate working conditions, minimal benefits, and marginalized voices constitute grounds for political alliance. Carter then outlines a labor theory of agency that entails long-range collaboration among tenure-line faculty, part-time and non-tenure-track teachers, and student social movements, listening always for harmonies as well as dissonances among their modes of argument.