John W. Curtis, Emily R. Koren, Adrianna Kezar, KC Culver, Caren Arbeit and Nicole McDermott Tate

Pullias Center for Higher Education (2024)

This report describes the two-year pilot study of how best to create a national study of faculty working at non-profit colleges and universities of all types across the country, given the social media and survey research environment of the 2020s.

Since 2004, two major developments have significantly changed the landscape for academic employment: the increasing reliance on contingent academic labor, and significant investments into increasing the hiring and retention of historically-minoritized faculty (including faculty of color, LGBTQ+ faculty, and faculty with disabilities). Additionally, the Covid-19 pandemic shifted the work of faculty significantly; in some cases, it dramatically altered their connection to campus and with students.

The purpose of the Faculty, Academic Careers and Environments (FACE) project is to understand who faculty are, what their academic careers look like, and how the environments in which they work shape their ability to thrive as instructors, researchers and public scholars in the community.