Date: TBD

Time: TBD

CFP 53 - Critical Dialogue: CRITICAL DIALOGUE: Contingency and the Professions
Room: TBD

Sponsor: Labor Studies

Organizer &

Presider/Discussant: Seth Kahn, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

Description: 

This session explores how contingency shapes professional identities and practices across diverse fields. Presenters examine the rise of precarious employment and shifting expectations within their professions. Talks address academic contingency and its implications for professionals navigating precarious structures. These papers highlight how contingency destabilizes traditional notions of professionalism while raising new questions about labor, legitimacy, and the future of work.

Papers:

“‘We’re All Gig Workers Now’: Perspectives of Professional Human Service Workers on Workplace Precarity,” Cheryl A. Hyde, Temple University

“Financial Precarity and Professional Distress: The Impact of the Gig Economy in Social Work,” Alison Fedoris Leslie, The Center for Social Work Education, Widener University

“From ‘Professor Staff’ to ‘Professional Staff’: Contingency, Solidarity, and the Mission of Higher Education,” Maria C. Maisto, Independent Scholar

“Organizational Tacitness and Gendered Risks: Cultural Matching Reexamined,” Yinan Wang and Zehra Yildirim, Harvard University

“Resisting the Trope of ‘De-Professionalizing’ Higher Education,” Seth Kahn, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

“Digitalization of the Economy and the Changing Landscape of Informal Work,” Debarashmi Mitra, Central New Mexico Community College

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