the feminist librarian reads

You insist that the committee include contingent instructors rather than just tenure-track and/or tenured professors, so you start talking to people to get them to join. You talk to a colleague who would be perfect for the task force. She asks about whether members will be paid for their service. You don’t know. She mentions that service commitments exploit adjuncts as free labor, and thus, it is doubly exploitative for contingent workers on the task force. You know that she’s right. This starts to bother you. You are no longer in academia. Unpaid labor has a higher cost for you than it used to. Hours spent working on the task force are hours not spent on your freelance writing. Shouldn’t your work be paid for?