Today’s guest Professor Michael Bernard-Donals says the conversation around precarity in higher education has become more common in recent years. “We’re talking about it in terms of the elimination of tenure protections or the threat of the elimination of tenure protections for faculty members,” he says. “That precarity is visible in terms of the job insecurity of non-tenure track faculty and instructional staff. It’s seen in the reach in from legislatures around the country, on what faculty members can teach, or what they can say in public spaces.”

Professor Bernard-Donals joins host Diego Alegría to talk about his latest book The Vulnerability of Public Higher Education, which traces the history and the current crisis of public higher education in the U.S. through the work, the rights, and the responsibilities of faculty.

Michael Bernard-Donals is Chaim Perelman Professor of Rhetoric and Culture and Nancy Hoefs Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He served as UW-Madison Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff, and he is now the Executive Director of the Center for Teaching and Research on Writing. His previous books include Forgetful Memory: Representation and Remembrance in the Wake of the Holocaust (SUNY Press, 2009) and Figures of Memory: The Rhetoric of Displacement at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (SUNY Press, 2016).

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