Precarity in the Academy and Solidarity Amidst COVID-19: Resisting Employment Restrictions on International Graduate Students

IF 1.5 3区文学 Q2 COMMUNICATION

Communication Culture & Critique Pub Date : 2021-04-14 DOI:10.1093/ccc/tcab023

Jing Jiang

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

Amidst worsening precarity exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this article analyzes my employment crisis to highlight the critical value of communication in solidarity efforts. My case is set in U.S. academia, where graduate assistant labor is increasingly necessary for universities to function (Kroeger, McNicholas, Wilpert, & Wolfe, 2018, January 11). However, due to their student–worker identity, graduate assistants are also vulnerable to job loss amidst contestations around their employee status and rights to unionize and collectively bargain (McNicholas, Poydock, & Wolfe, 2019, December 19). Accounting for one-third of graduate assistants (McNicholas et al., 2019, December 19), international students also face unique vulnerabilities tied to travel, citizenship, and work restrictions. These precarities surfaced during the pandemic when the United States closed borders and universities furloughed graduate assistants sheltering abroad (e.g., Redden, 2020, August 11). My experience illuminates broader job insecurities and inequalities in higher education while also drawing attention to the role of communication in solidarity efforts aimed at combatting injustices. I illustrate how communication facilitated solidarity through information exchange, action coordination, transparency mobilization, and emotional connection.

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学院的不稳定与COVID-19中的团结:抵制对国际研究生的就业限制

在2019冠状病毒病大流行加剧了不稳定性恶化的背景下，本文分析了我的就业危机，以突出沟通在团结努力中的关键价值。我的案例以美国学术界为背景，研究生助理劳动力对大学的运作越来越必要(Kroeger, McNicholas, Wilpert， & Wolfe, 2018年1月11日)。然而，由于他们的学生工人身份，研究生助理也很容易在围绕他们的员工身份和加入工会和集体谈判的权利的争论中失业(麦克尼古拉斯，波多克，和沃尔夫，2019年12月19日)。国际学生占研究生助理的三分之一(McNicholas等人，2019年，12月19日)，在旅行、公民身份和工作限制方面也面临着独特的脆弱性。这些不稳定因素在疫情期间浮出水面，当时美国关闭了边境，大学让在国外避难的研究生助理休假(例如，Redden, 2020年8月11日)。我的经历说明了高等教育中更广泛的就业不安全感和不平等现象，同时也提请人们注意沟通在打击不公正现象的团结努力中的作用。我说明了沟通如何通过信息交流、行动协调、透明度动员和情感联系促进团结。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Communication Culture & Critique COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

5.90%

发文量

期刊介绍： CCC provides an international forum for critical research in communication, media, and cultural studies. We welcome high-quality research and analyses that place questions of power, inequality, and justice at the center of empirical and theoretical inquiry. CCC seeks to bring a diversity of critical approaches (political economy, feminist analysis, critical race theory, postcolonial critique, cultural studies, queer theory) to bear on the role of communication, media, and culture in power dynamics on a global scale. CCC is especially interested in critical scholarship that engages with emerging lines of inquiry across the humanities and social sciences. We seek to explore the place of mediated communication in current topics of theorization and cross-disciplinary research (including affect, branding, posthumanism, labor, temporality, ordinariness, and networked everyday life, to name just a few examples). In the coming years, we anticipate publishing special issues on these themes.