Author Archives: Ryan Griffis

The LA Times recently ran an op-ed by Joseph A. McCartin (Historian at Georgetown University and author of Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America) that briefly summarizes the origins of public sector unions in the US. As McCartin points out, for most of their history, public sectorContinue reading “Imagining Public Work”

Back in 2005, the Atlantic ran a piece about financial aid leveraging as a tactic used by colleges and universities to recruit wealthy and “high performing” students. Along with the growth of the “enrollment manager,” the article discusses the ethical and moral dilemma faced by institutions of higher ed as they compete for US NewsContinue reading “Leveraging Class”

A recent, reflective piece by Carolyn Foster Segal on the slippery definitions of academic work got me thinking about the ways that such work is understood in terms of its labor value. This existential crisis is unquestionably a political one, as can be seen in a recent conflict between Graduate Student Research Assistants who are attempting toContinue reading “Fitting In”