Precarity & Contingency

Precarity & Contingency Logo

Series Editors: Seth Kahn, West Chester University, and Sue Doe, Colorado State University

Series Description

Precarity & Contingency publishes scholarship—broadly construed to include empirical (both quantitative and qualitative), historical, and critical/theoretical projects—on precarious academic labor. While our focus is primarily on academic labor in higher education, we encourage projects that expand their scopes to include other labor issues on campuses (including K-12) and/or precarity in labor sectors outside education. We encourage new visions of/innovations in leadership in the academic environment that might more effectively address current labor crises. We also encourage projects that explore intersections of academic labor activism with other forms of activism, such as LGBTQA, gender, race equality, ability/disability activism, and environmentalism, among others. 

We invite monographs and edited collections in both linear (print) and multimodal/hypertextual formats. Proposals for edited collections should address how the collection works as a whole to advance an argument or set of concepts, while being clear about how individual chapters contribute to that larger project. We do not expect all contributors to agree, that is, but we do expect editors to be clear about the overarching project and the rationale for compiling it.

The series is published by The WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado. It is sponsored by CSU’s Center for the Study of Academic Labor.

Series Mission

We seek to support and amplify researchers/scholars whose access to traditional publication venues is limited if not denied: contingent faculty; women; non-binary/gender-queer scholars; scholars of color; unaffiliated scholars; et al. As series editors, we are committed to mentoring authors/contributors who may be new to the publication process. In keeping with the mission of the WAC Clearinghouse, all books in the series are made available without charge to readers via the web. Through the Clearinghouse's collaboration with University Press of Colorado, the books in the series will also be made available in print for readers who prefer that medium.

Publication Plan

Our goal is to release one title annually. Although you’re welcome to submit proposals and talk to us about ideas at any time, we plan to limit our initial review period to September of each year.

Submission Guidelines

Please view our submissions guidelines on the WAC Clearinghouse.

Proposals should include:

  • Overview of the project
  • Review of existing literature that may compete with the proposed project
  • Table of contents
  • Approximate length
  • Qualifications of the editor(s)/author(s)
  • Introduction and sample chapters (if possible)

We ask that authors follow the latest edition of the MLA guide.

Submit proposals at the WAC Clearinghouse submissions portal at https://submissions.colostate.edu.