Round Table: Teaching and Academic Freedom

The Week of October 17-21 has been designated Fair Employment Week around Canada, when academics come together to discuss issues and solutions to the increasing precariousness of academic work. CAUT identifies academic freedom as the cornerstone of academic work, as without the freedom to teach or speak or write according to our academic expertise, we are unable to contribute fully to the work of the Academy. Although there are often strong policies around academic freedom in many universities around Canada, these policies often seem to be only truly effective in conjunction with job security. This Roundtable would like to examine the issue of academic freedom in the context of contract academic positions. Some questions we will ask will be: How does academic freedom differ from freedom of speech? What academic freedom policies exist at this university? What choices do we make about our texts and our pedagogy because of our contract status?

We hope you will attend this important Roundtable, which will give us a chance to exchange ideas and experiences.

Coffee and snacks will be provided.

Facilitators:

Sarika Bose teaches in the English Department and is the Chair of the UBCFA’s Contract Faculty Committee, which represents 8-month, 12- month and all other non- tenure track faculty at UBC.

Judy Chan is a sessional lecturer with the Faculty of Land and Food Systems since 2010 and an educational consultant with the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology. At the time of writing this brief bio, she was preparing to submit final grades for the course she taught in the summer.