Winter 2026 | Volume 112, No. 1
The winter issue of Academe—edited by Alissa Karl, associate professor of English at SUNY Brockport and vice president for academics of United University Professions—considers the structure and conditions of academic labor today. Who performs the type of knowledge work we call academic labor, of what does it consist, and what might its appropriate aims be? Contributors to the issue examine the realities of teaching, research, and service within a highly tiered and increasingly contingent academic workforce; graduate students and the reproduction of academic labor; the stakes of AI for faculty work; and the demographic changes that are transforming the academic labor movement.
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FEATURES
The Underclass Is in Session
Teaching, research, and service in a vastly unequal academy.
By David A. Banks
Training, Contingency, and Academics in Graduate Student Labor
Fear of falling when you’re already on the ground.
By Jesús Fernández
Artificial Intelligence as a Threat to Academic Labor
Who benefits when AI is introduced into higher education?
By Ulises A. Mejias
How Academic Workers Have Reenergized the Labor Movement
The demographic reconfiguration and ideological reorientation of academic labor.
By Gary Rhoades
Academic Labor’s Generational Shift
Newer faculty are leading the way.
By Eric Rader
This Is Not the "New McCarthyism"—It's Worse (online only)
A shameful new chapter in the University of California's history.
By John McCumber
BOOK REVIEWS
Academic Freedom’s Uneven First Amendment Path
Anil Kalhan reviews Academic Freedom by David M. Rabban.
Why Human Work Still Matters as AI Advances
Leslie Taylor reviews More Than Words by John Warner.
Humanities Faculty in the Hinterlands
Jim Vander Putten reviews Exile at Small-Time U ed. Douglas Higbee.
Fighting Neoliberal Restructuring at the University of Leicester
Robert Ovetz reviews Shaping for Mediocrity by Gibson Burrell, Ronald Hartz, David Harvie, Geoff Lightfoot, Simon Lilley, and Friends.
CHAPTER PROFILE
University of Scranton Faculty Affairs Council
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COLUMNS
From the Guest Editor: What Is Academic Labor Now?
Legal Watch: Coalition Litigation Strengthens the Defense of Academic Freedom
State of the Profession: The Hijacking of Antidiscrimination Law
NOTA BENE
November 7 Protests Send Powerful Message
Defeating Trump's "Loyalty Oath" Compacts
Defending Academic Freedom in the Courts
AAUP Report Responds to Attacks on Faculty Governance
Joint Report on the Weaponization of Civil Rights Law
A Banner Year for Membership Growth
AAUP Forms Political Action Committee
Research and Organizing Specialist Joins Staff
