CSAL is an interdisciplinary research center that supports scholarship, commentary, artistry and activism on contingent academic labor and the future of higher education... The teaching mission of higher education, and the system of academic labor that puts it into practice, are under threat from escalating tuition costs, competition from on-line alternatives, shrinking state support for higher education, and administrative spending priorities. CSAL seeks to build a multidisciplinary network of scholars who have particular interests in the dramatic growth of contingent faculty throughout all of higher education and its impact on educational outcomes, faculty governance, academic freedom and the culture of higher education. In so doing, CSAL carves out an area of research that some have called "contingency studies." CSAL publishes books, journals, papers and data on topics such as the characteristics and working conditions of contingent faculty, the academic labor market, university..