TL;DR
We are starting a mutual aid housing network for our scholarly community, to request and offer housing as the economic crisis unfolds. Fill out survey here!
It is becoming clear that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic crisis will have lasting and potentially devastating effects on our discipline: the already precarious job-market is likely to shrink even further; many contingent faculty and graduate students will be left with even fewer resources necessary for their housing, medical, and other basic needs; even those with full-time positions may find their jobs at risk. For many, continuing to teach and produce scholarship in this situation will prove untenable. This will spell a tremendous loss not just for individuals in our profession, but for our entire field.
It is important to recognize and ground our actions in an awareness of the danger that each and every member of our field faces. The dissolution of the Russian major at Ohio University and termination of affiliated Russian faculty is a disquieting example of the austerity measures that are likely to follow at universities throughout the country. As the situation at Ohio University demonstrates, our programs will likely be among the first targeted for layoffs when administrations begin making cuts.
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