Strategies for Defending Higher Education

This counter-conference will take place during the annual Modern Language Convention in Los Angeles, January 8th, 2011 from 1-5 at Loyola Law School (919 Albany St, 4 block from the Mariott, in Merrifield Hall). While thousands of people will be meeting at the traditional convention, UC-AFT will hold a one-day event centered on discussing actual strategies for making higher education more just. Speakers will present short papers on topics like the death of tenure, the corporatization of the university, the possibilities of unionization, direct social action, the use and abuse of graduate students, organizing contingent faculty, and taking back shared governance.
Schedule:

• Remaking the University of California: 1:00-1:45: Catharine Liu, Chris Newfield, Joshua Clover
  
• Defending the Humanities and Shared Governance: 1:45-2:30: Cary Nelson, Jeffrey Williams, Michelle Masse
  
• Organizing Labor and the Academic Class War: 2:30-3:15: Marc Bousquet, Maria Maisto, Joe Berry
  
• Graduate Students and Precarious Labor: 3:15-4:00: Annie McClanahan (Harvard, former UAW bargaining unit), Jasper Bernes (GSOC, UCB), Stephanie Seawell (GEO, UI Champaign Urbana), Kerry Pimblott (UI Champaign Urbana)
  
• Quality, Access, and Affordability: 4:00-4:30: Murray Sperber, Elizabeth Hoffman, and Bob Samuels
  
• Open Discussion on Strategies for Changing Higher Education: 4:30-4:55.

hm 12/10/10