L. V. Anderson looks into “what really happened to Margaret Mary Vojtko” and concludes that “better benefits and job security would not have altered many of the personal factors that precipitated Vojtko’s crisis.” Even so, Anderson says, the use of adjunct labor in higher education is “a scourge.”
A related post
Death of an adjunct
Thursday, November 21, 2013
The Margaret Mary Vojtko story
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
comments: 1
I found this article quite absorbing. In addition to the terrible and unjust plight of adjuncts, what moved me so was the account of how, in the relentless and mysterious process of time, Ms. Vojtko went from being a talented, knowledgeable person within her distinct community to becoming a stranger in a new era, an era in which her values, attitudes, and abilities were irrelevant, her neighborhood itself becoming crime-ridden and decayed. She was so painfully alone, and practically doomed to loneliness and hoarding by being entrusted with the "museum of the family" by her father. Although I do not share some of Ms. Vojtko's convictions, I can't help feeling that she came from a culturally richer time in American life and that her gradual marginalization embodies the cultural decay of the nation itself. The image of her as a young woman, speaking foreign languages, conversant with theology, and at the same time attempting to document the history of her local union movement, is so captivating to me. Thanks for calling our attention to this exceptional article.
Post a Comment