Academe Blog
by Catherine M. Young
September 17, 2021
A fun read in solidarity with our adjunct colleagues...
Follow the foibles of Claire Park, a Walt Whitman expert and part-time instructor at a small liberal arts college and large public university as she looks ahead to the fall semester and wonders how she will pay her November and December rent if her third class is canceled because not enough students registered for “iSing the Body Electric: Walt Whitman in the Digital Age.”
Guffaw as Claire picks up an extra class at a religious college and has a hilarious outfit-changing montage in which Claire decides to risk wearing pants, then decides against it, then puts on a long black skirt and a loose sweater, and her BFF tells her, “You look like a pregnant witch.”
Cringe as Claire can’t print her course materials on the adjunct printer and asks the Visiting Assistant Professor, Maria, if she can use her personal office printer, causing Maria to spill coffee on HER course materials. Claire and Maria, who might have been friends in another life, never speak again.
Watch Claire stand at the computer that sits between the microwave and mini-fridge in the main office because the computer in the faculty lounge has an ancient browser that won’t load any websites except AOL. Claire does not have the “administrative privileges” to update the browser.