La Comunidad is hosting a panel on the annual meeting theme, "La Labor de Nuestras Manos," by presenting three papers reflecting on the distinct challenges faced by Latinx people in the United States workforce, from their undocumented status to their racialization by the dominant culture to the exploitation of their labor by the very institutions Latinx people turned to for protection, in order to document the continuing struggles of Latinx people within the North American labor market. Given the missional stance of our institutions, it becomes necessary to analyze and critique their hiring practices in light of the ongoing exploitation of contingent labor.
La Comunidad of Hispanic Scholars of Religion Steering Committee
Officers:
President – Ruben Rosario, ruben.rosariorodriguez@slu.edu
Vice President – Erica Ramirez, eramirez@auburnseminary.org
Secretary – Efrain Velazquez, velazquezef@interamerica.org
Treasurer – Nathan Garcia, ngarci50@stedwards.edu
Members-at-Large (3):
Elaine Padilla, epadilla@laverne.edu
Rodolfo Estrada, rodolfo.estrada@vanguard.edu
Crystal Silva-McCormick (student member), crystalsilva1900@gmail.com
The post-Vatican II secularization of Catholic higher education in tandem with the secularization of their religious congregations is a consistent cause of the growth of adjunct faculty and other practices which ape their secular counterparts. Secular ways of doing business in higher education replaced ways integral to how Catholics have managed their institutions in the past, amplified by the need for Government grants, lay collaborators who were not formed by the sponsoring religious congregations to take co-responsibility with the mission, or were indifferent to the mission in favor of market “realities,” and a general collapse of confidence by religious congregations and their lay collaborators in their received spiritual and theological traditions having anything to say to critique, reform, or provide an alternate vision to manage their educational institutions to survive and thrive.