Adjuncting Until the End of Time

By Maria Adelmann

One night many years ago, my partner came home from work, hobbled on his crutches across the living room, and nearly collapsed onto the couch. He was still recovering from major surgery but was unable to take time off from work, as his income was dependent on a patchwork of adjunct teaching jobs without benefits under short-term contracts at three different colleges.

A massive bolus of keys, several for each place he worked, was clipped to his belt and jangled comically, metaphorically, off the edge of the couch. “Are we living in a sitcom?” I asked. We both started laughing. As with many issues in this era, the tragedy of reality had somehow crossed the line into satire. Still, I mentally pocketed the scene. Years later, I wrote it into my novel The Adjunct—then I wrote it out, for being too absurd.