Precarious Lives, Precarious Systems | A Conversation With Terra Poirier

A conversation with Terra Poirier and Rita Wong (and anyone else who would like to participate). This event will be hosted in-person in the Libby Leshgold Gallery, or available to view via zoom.

In 2018 in collaboration with dozens of ECU community members, Terra Poirier produced Non-Regular: Precarious academic labour at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, an artist book considering how labour precarity erodes academic standards and negatively affects art and learning. We are revisiting where we are now four years later. What kinds of systemic solutions are achievable through collective bargaining for instance? What kinds of responsibilities do governments have and people to one another to create the conditions for respectful coexistence and meaningful learning?

Contract teaching appointments have become standard practice at Canadian post-secondary schools, including Emily Carr. Non-Regular is a collection of testimonials, analyses, interviews and artwork that aims to expose the problems of this employment model and to contribute to larger conversations about neoliberal education. It consists of contributions by 27 instructors and artists speaking candidly about the conditions of their labour. Topics include teaching as low-wage work; job security; respect and the value of art(ists); maintaining professional practices; the politics of space at the new ECU campus; impacts on students; solidarity and the role of tenured faculty; and the erosion of academic freedom and integrity. We also consider how these conditions are exacerbated by and amplify gender and racial bias within academia.

While the book comes out of Emily Carr, much of the content applies to any post-secondary school that relies on casualized teaching labour. A particular strength of the project is that contributors had the option to be anonymous, allowing them to speak candidly without compromising their job security.

Snacks and tea will be available.