Emily Bloom

Candidate statement

I recognize that people work in contingent positions for a variety of reasons and that there is no single experience of job precarity; however, scholars in contingent positions face common challenges and professional organizations like the Modernist Studies Association are in a unique position to support these members. I am an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University, but I have spent time on many different branches of the academic system both on and off the tenure track, in visiting and adjunct positions, as well as working for the last three years in a staff position supporting postdoctoral fellows. I have benefitted greatly from my involvement with the MSA, winning the First Book Prize while in a one-year visiting position and receiving an MSA Research Travel Grant at a time when I had no institutional research funding. Job scarcity is the number one issue affecting our profession right now and needs to be at the forefront of all of our decisions as a professional organization. Supporting contingent faculty is something very tangible that the MSA can do to help address the current job crisis. The introduction of a Board position for contingent faculty is a step in the right direction, and, if elected to the Board, I would use this position to push that the MSA provide job and publication mentorship, financial support towards research travel and conference attendance, and political advocacy for contingent faculty.