La Comunidad of Hispanic Scholars of Religion

“White-Collar Migrants: Labor and Poverty in the Religious Academy” 

In keeping with the 2023 theme “La Labor de Nuestras Manos,” our unit invites papers on the topic of Latinx contingent labor in the religious and theological academy. Not only has the number of Latinx faculty remained stagnant in the academy for over a decade, but those finding employment in their field are also disproportionately contingent faculty, often relocating at great expense in the pursuit of an academic teaching position that might become permanent. When factoring in the fact that most of these colleges, universities, and seminaries embrace a tradition of social and economic justice, it becomes necessary to analyze and critique their hiring practices in light of the ongoing exploitation of contingent labor. 

Possible themes include: 

• Unionization efforts 
• Non-tenured teaching faculty: a new permanent underclass? 
• The role of denominational schools in perpetuating problems or presenting solutions 
• What hope for the future? Strategies for negotiating positive change 
• The role of class in academic employment 
• Gender, Class, and Ethnic stratification within the Latinx theological academy 
• The international hire—the challenges to Latinx identity in global context 

Proposals should be sent directly to Rubén Rosario Rodríguez, ruben.rosariorodriguez@slu.edu and Erica Ramirez, eramirez@auburnseminary.org no later than March 15, 2023.