The American Academic Profession: Transformation in Contemporary Higher Education ed. by Joseph C. Hermanowicz (review)

The American Academic Profession, edited by Joseph C. Hermanowicz, brings together a notable group of scholars from higher education and sociology who consider the changes that characterize faculty work in the early 21st century. As Hermanowicz explains in the preface, contributors were asked to consider the ways that "American academe may be eroding as a profession" (ix-x) and, in particular, how these changes impact both the form and function of academia. As the authors in this thoughtful and sobering volume underscore, the changes in academe amount to more than simply an increase in the number of nontenure-track faculty or a decrease in faculty governance, but rather have implications for the future of the roles that faculty will perform, both within the university and in society at large.

The text is divided into five sections. Each chapter merits its own description, but due to space limitations, I provide a broad overview of each section and highlight a few particularly noteworthy chapters. After an introduction to the current state of the academy by Jack Schuster, the authors in the first section consider structural and cognitive changes to the profession, particularly with regards to teaching. In Chapters 2 and 3, Steven Brint and Gary Rhoades each consider the role that new entities, both internal and external to the university, play in shaping the definition and delivery of teaching. The role of individuals other than faculty shaping the structure of academic work is a theme that recurs throughout the text.

Part 2 considers how doctoral education fits into the changing nature of the professoriate with two helpful contributions by Ann Austin and John Braxton and colleagues. In Part 3, Anna Neumann's and the editor Hermanowicz's chapters explore faculty members' experiences in the academy. In her chapter, Neumann considers the importance of scholarly learning, not just for keeping an individual engaged in his or her role as a professor, but also for the very foundation of the academy.

In his chapter, Hermanowicz uses Durkheim's notion of anomie to explore how scientists at different types of institutions might experience a gap between their current condition and future aspirations. He argued that scientists at elite institutions (such as Harvard) experience the least satisfaction at the end of their careers while those at less elite research institutions are more satisfied with their accomplishments upon retirement, though they experience less satisfaction while working. While I appreciated all of the chapters of this volume, Neumann's and Hermanowicz's were particularly striking in that each pointed to the less obvious consequences that the current trends of regulation and increasing use of contingent labor might have on the professoriate.

While other chapters consider the influence of external entities on academe, Part 4 explicitly addresses the ways that academic freedom and autonomy are threatened by the rise of corporations, commercialization, and increasing regulation by government. As the authors of these chapters suggest, if research is one of the core functions of faculty work and if autonomy and academic freedom are among academe's core values, then both are threatened, according to the authors of this section's chapters.

The final section of the book returns to the issues discussed throughout the text with contemporary and historical snapshots of faculty work. John Thelin's chapter, re-examining the "Golden Age" of higher education, underscores claims made by other contributors in the volume—namely that the current state of the academy evolved over a half century and that increased administrative control and competition for financial resources began many years ago.

Each chapter of the book is concerned with the ways that the professoriate is changing. Some of the authors, like Rhoades, point out that the professoriate itself shoulders some of the blame for the changes. In his chapter on the rise of professions that lay claim to an expertise on teaching, Rhoades suggests that faculty are placing...