On behalf of the Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW), the AHA invites all historians and other faculty employed in the contingent academic workforce in U.S. colleges and universities to participate in a survey about course assignments, salaries, benefits, and general working conditions.

We invite participation from all instructional and research staff members employed off the tenure track, including faculty members employed either full- or part-time, graduate students remunerated as teaching assistants or employed in other roles, and researchers and post-doctoral fellows.

This is an exceptionally important study, as most of the data on the working conditions of the contingent academic workforce exist in large data sets that are only aggregated and averaged at the national level. This obscures the similarities and differences that contingent academic workers experience across different institutions and institutional sectors, geographic regions, and disciplines. The survey collects institution- and course-specific information to create a more textured and realistic picture of contingent academic workers’ working lives and working conditions.

With your assistance, this survey will develop a rich dataset to help CAW and its member organizations advocate on behalf of professional compensation and working conditions for the contingent academic workforce. To that end we deeply appreciate the time and effort given by all who fill out this survey. Individuals who wish to be entered in a drawing for one of several $50 book gift cards may include contact information at the end of the questionnaire, but this information will not be used to connect survey data with specific persons.

Please visit the following URL: www.surveymonkey.com/s/VNNNRVS. We hope you will fill out the questionnaire today, but if you cannot, please do so by November 30, 2010. Winners of the gift cards will be notified the following week.