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This paper provides an overview of the literature exploring the realities of contingent faculty at U.S. universities and colleges with a focus on STEM. We focus our review of the literature by exploring the experiences of Latinx/é contingent faculty in STEM and propose a series of conceptual frameworks that can be used to explore the hidden professional realities of this population. A focus on the field of STEM, via a deeper exploration of the literature, points to the evolution of contingent faculty in the disciplines and the diversity of the roles they currently fill at our universities and colleges. This paper draws on various frameworks for exploring the experiences of contingent faculty. 

The Conference for Latinx Contingent Faculty Members convened a group of faculty members in STEM fields at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) in the California State University System. The two-day event explored the often hidden, or unacknowledged realities of contingent faculty participants, with the purpose of gathering information about barriers and trade-offs these faculty experience professionally and personally that impact their work. This report provides an overview of barriers and challenges that were raised in the conference, and a brief review of the literature of strategies that could address these experiences, and better support Latinx contingent faculty in STEM. 

The authors of this paper hosted a 2-day conference that brought a group of Latiné/x/a/o contingent faculty from the California State University (CSU) system together to better understand the barriers they face in their professional roles and responsibilities while also identifying assets they bring to the classroom and institutions. Contingent faculty face mounting and compounding barriers that have devastating effects, not only on the faculty, but also the students they serve since a majority of contingent faculty are hired to teach first-generation, working class, and students of color. This paper seeks to synthesize a follow-up to the conference in where five STEM deans within CSU system were recruited to do a reading and reflection about the findings connected to the 2-day conference for the contingent faculty. From the dean’s responses, the authors paint a picture on the challenges that also impact deans from making changes for contingent faculty.