Time-Capped Faculty, In Their Own Words
By Joanna Lin and Amann S. Mahajan, Crimson Staff WritersAll Harvard students are likely to take at least one class with a time-capped worker. These faculty — whose time at Harvard is limited to two, three, or eight years — staff several of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ staple programs, from Expository Writing to language instruction and History & Literature tutorials.
Yet they are part of a constantly churning cycle, sometimes leaving the University before their students do.
Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers — one of Harvard’s newest unions, representing roughly 3,600 non-tenure-track faculty — has been bargaining for its first contract with the University since September. And while the University has offered to remove term limits for preceptors, union members have been pushing to abolish the limits entirely.
We talked to 16 time-capped FAS faculty members past and present — in their offices, favorite cafes, and over call — to understand the living realities and reflections of faculty members on the clock.
—Joanna Lin ’28 and Amann S. Mahajan ’28, Crimson Magazine Writers
Featuring:
Nicholas F. Bloom, lecturer on the Committee on Degrees in History & Literature, 2023-26 | John Boonstra, lecturer on the Committee on Degrees in History & Literature, 2019-22; assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh | Julia S. Coyoli, lecturer on the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies, 2024-28 (planning to leave for a new job in 2025) | Thomas A. Dichter ’08, lecturer on the Committee on Degrees in History & Literature; formerly under time cap, 2015-20; time cap extended via dependent lectureship (taking on an administrative role as Program Assistant at Harvard Medical School’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Partnership), 2020-25 | Sara M. Feldman, preceptor in Yiddish, 2018-26 | Leslie J. Fernandez, program director of the Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights; lecturer on Asian American Studies, formerly under time cap, 2023-24 | Rebecca Galemba, lecturer on the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies, 2009-12; professor at the University of Denver | Aitor B. Gavín, lecturer on the Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights, 2024-27 | J. Gregory Given, preceptor in expository writing, 2021-29 | Chloe I. Hawkey, lecturer on the Committee on Degrees in History & Literature, 2024-27 | Ana I. Keilson, lecturer on the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies, 2017-23; co-founder and co-executive director of the Gull Island Institute, an educational nonprofit | Andi T. Remoquillo, lecturer on the Committee on Degrees in History & Literature, 2024-27 | Michaela J. Thompson, preceptor in Environmental Science and Public Policy, 2018-22 | Emmet W. von Stackelberg ’14, lecturer on the Committee on Degrees in History & Literature, 2023-26 | Patrick Whitmarsh, lecturer on the Committee on Degrees in History & Literature, 2019-22; visiting assistant professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross | Gulnar E. Yulghun, preceptor in Uyghur and Chaghatay, 2020-27
These responses have been edited for length and clarity. A University spokesperson declined to comment for this article.
Time caps are...
“A funny hall of mirrors. You put a lot of effort into your work when you have a time cap, and you see in some ways the fruits of your labor — you have brilliant students, you have fabulous connections with colleagues, maybe you make a little bit of a difference here and there. But fundamentally, you’re told by the administration that you are not a part of the institution, that your work is not valued, that you are dehumanized in a certain kind of way through your work. And that’s just wrong.”
—Ana I. Keilson, lecturer on Social Studies, 2017-23
“An environment for newly graduated academics to feel like we have to be, quite frankly, really thankful to get bare minimum things.”
—Andi T. Remoquillo, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2024-27
“A strange and illogical byproduct of a lot of different Harvard priorities and structures all crashing together and evolving over the decades.”
—J. Gregory Given, preceptor in Expos, 2021-29
When getting the job, faculty members had complicated feelings.
“It’s because of Harvard’s name-brand recognition that people advised me to do it and that I was willing to do it despite the fact that it was time-capped. There was a sense that having a position at Harvard, even if it’s only for three years, would be really valuable for my CV.”
—Leslie J. Fernandez, program director of EMR; lecturer on Asian American Studies, formerly under time cap 2023-24
“In 2017, I felt like I had won the lottery. My husband and I got hired together to teach at Harvard, even though it was time-capped. I think we understood there were strings attached. But we felt very lucky to have been a double hire.”
—Ana I. Keilson, lecturer on Social Studies, 2017-23
“I was grateful for employment. I noted that it was time capped. I knew that there was this eight-year limit on being able to work in this position that was explained to me by the director of the program when I took the job. And that was unfortunate, but an eight-year limit is a lot better than a one-year limit, which is what a lot of academic jobs have in that post-doc type world.”
—J. Gregory Given, preceptor in Expos, 2021-29
“I harbored some illusion that I would be able to do well in the position and continue. Hist & Lit has some ways of extending, but they’re very limited and basically dependent on the needs of any given year.”
—John Boonstra, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2019-22
Time caps leave dreams deferred — and faculty projects transient.
“There’s all kinds of things that I’d be excited to collaborate on across other departments or with other centers, if there were the time to do so meaningfully. But knowing that I only had three years meant that already half of me had to be focused on the next thing.”
—Emmet W. von Stackelberg ’14, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2023-26
“Right now, I am developing an Afro-Latinx Studies initiative in which I’m not only offering courses, but also creating events, trying to create a research cluster. And this is an initiative that will stay in Harvard, but somebody will have to take it over. And if nobody’s willing to take that over, that initiative will not continue.”
—Aitor B. Gavín, lecturer on EMR, 2024-27
“On the one hand, there’s a sense of solidarity with other lecturers that have time caps. On the other hand, when somebody is about to time out, it’s like they have the mark of the scarlet letter.”
—Ana I. Keilson, lecturer on Social Studies, 2017-23
One faculty member represents what can happen when they get more time…
“Because I’ve been able to stick around in a more long term — if still in a kind of precarious — fashion, I’ve been very interested in doing what I can to make this University better. I guess some of that is the union effort. But also I am on a team doing a grant. We received a grant from the Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging: the Culture Lab Innovation Fund. We got a grant to run workshops about making Harvard more inclusive for formerly incarcerated people, as a place to study and as a place to work. So thinking about, what are our HR policies? What are our admissions policies … what have other universities done? Working on projects like that, trying to make policy changes, make improvements. That’s the sort of thing that — when people like me are allowed to stick around — we can put our energy into.”
—Thomas A. Dichter ’08, lecturer on Hist & Lit; 2015-20, extended 2020-25 via taking on an administrative role
… and what can come out of leaving.
“I’m the co-founder and co-executive director of the Gull Island Institute. It’s a 501(c)(3) education nonprofit with a mission to cultivate democratic citizenship for an age of climate change. Our educational model is grounded in three pillars of rigorous academics, physical labor, and student self-governance … I had the opportunity to teach for a term at Deep Springs College, and there, the institution is run on a self-governance model, so the students run the school. It’s a funny experience for faculty. In some ways, as a faculty member, you’re very empowered. In other ways, you’re very disempowered. But it’s so different from Harvard. It was a complete paradigm shift, and that just opened my eyes to new models.”
—Ana I. Keilson, lecturer on Social Studies, 2017-23
For some time-capped faculty, the future after leaving Harvard is clear. For others, it is murky.
“I got a tenure-track position at the University of Strathclyde, which is in Glasgow. So my family and I are moving to Glasgow in July.”
—Julia S. Coyoli, lecturer on Social Studies, 2024-28
“At the end of this, I’m in some sense going to be too far out from my Ph.D. and overqualified for an entry-level assistant professor job. I need to keep up a publication profile like an assistant professor, so that I can compete for other positions in the future … I think that beating time caps in our contract negotiations is much more likely than me even ever sniffing a tenure-track position just based on the numbers game.”
—J. Gregory Given, preceptor in Expos, 2021-29
“If I teach Mandarin Chinese, I may have more opportunity to move to other places to teach, for example, but for teaching Uygher and Chaghatay, I don’t have any other university open to such a program, so I don’t know what I’m going to do after this time cap really urges me to move. I can’t really see my future.”
—Gulnar E. Yulghun, preceptor in Uyghur and Chaghatay, 2020-27
Time caps are complicated. So is academia.
“Harvard actually can really quickly, easily, efficiently, do one small part in making the academic labor market a little better by removing time caps. There’s so many problems that will remain with the academic labor market, but Harvard — being Harvard, and being able to make a simple policy change — means that this is actually one small thing that can happen really soon, maybe even in time for those of us who are in year three to still remain here and teach next year. That would make a really meaningful difference.”
—Emmet W. von Stackelberg ’14, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2023-26
“I think it’s no accident that the jobs that time-capped workers do here are overwhelmingly the work that over the decades, has been deemed beneath the stature of tenured faculty — either because it’s more basic and introductory than what they typically teach, or because it’s harder work.”
—J. Gregory Given, preceptor in Expos, 2021-29
“I feel it’s becoming more the rule than the exception to have some sort of either time cap or a position that is simply not a fully-fledged member of the academic community … This is the kind of academic environment that I confronted getting my Ph.D. in 2018 — even 10 years after the financial crisis, humanities and history positions in particular had greatly dwindled. So I think institutions are increasingly turning to more affordable or less expensive ways of employing faculty.”
—John Boonstra, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2019-22
“What is it about the humanities that you see as less important and needing less stability and consistency that you don’t perhaps see in other parts of education? Without making these accusatory ‘you’ statements that you don’t see this, or you don’t do that — can we have a larger conversation about what actually makes a university?”
—Andi T. Remoquillo, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2024-27
“I don’t think that it’s wrong that there are two tracks of faculty within Harvard: tenure-track and tenured faculty, in which they’re teaching and becoming luminaries in the field. And then there’s a track where it’s mostly just teaching. I think what’s wrong is that the second track is invisible, and Harvard wants to pretend we don’t exist.”
—Michaela J. Thompson, preceptor in ESPP, 2018-22
“From a money perspective, to maintain the kind of prestige of Harvard as a place that’s really an elite educational institution and not just an elite credential-granting institution … it would be actually beneficial to provide security to those teachers, because then it actually enhances the quality of the education.”
—Nicholas F. Bloom, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2023-26
Time-capped faculty are teachers by day — and parents, researchers, and job seekers by night.
“I didn’t do much research at all in that first year … in particular, because balancing doing the job search and applying to so many different positions, with learning a new role and teaching full classes was an overwhelming workload.”
—Leslie J. Fernandez, program director of EMR; lecturer on Asian American Studies, formerly under time cap 2023-24
“Treating this teaching job as a side gig and requiring us to get other jobs if we’re going to stay is not respectful to me as a teacher … But, I think perhaps more significantly, it’s not respectful to our undergraduates and their learning experience.”
—Thomas A. Dichter ’08, lecturer on Hist & Lit; 2015-20, extended 2020-25 via taking on an administrative role
“It was very hard to set boundaries … that may be a Harvard culture in general. But again, because we were assigned advising loads like … if I had been given maternity leave, that would have … helped me. Because I wasn't given it, I still had a pretty heavy advising load, and I had students commenting that I wasn't available. Or I had comments saying, ‘Your office is really far away.’ You think I chose that?”
—Rebecca Galemba, lecturer on Social Studies, 2009-12
“I had no chances to really engage in professional development. I didn’t get any publications out. And these are all things that are critical if you want a job after you time out.”
—Michaela J. Thompson, preceptor in ESPP, 2018-22
“With the research, the organizing, the occasional applications for outside things … I can only ever be doing maybe one and a half of them at a time. And the teaching is the one that I always have to be doing. That’s my full-time job, right? That means, then, that especially during the term, it’s doing the work of teaching Expos all the time, and then in the little kind of interstices, trying to steal away an hour or two to work on a contract article for the union contract, or to work on a article that I’m co-writing with somebody.”
—J. Gregory Given, preceptor in Expos, 2021-29
“After that time cap, I wouldn’t be at Harvard anymore, but we didn’t know what would happen. Given the state of jobs in the humanities right now, regardless — but also, top that off with a pandemic that causes a bunch of places to just freeze hiring altogether — we put things on hold and maybe pushed things off … It did make us hit pause on a lot of those things, whether it was looking for a more permanent home, or whether it was starting a family.”
—Patrick Whitmarsh, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2019-22
Time caps present an obstacle to setting down roots.
“I face housing insecurity at the same time as I face the time cap insecurity … It would be so much easier to try to find a more secure place to live if I had some guarantee that I would have a job here beyond a year and a half from now.”
—Emmet W. von Stackelberg ’14, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2023-26
“I’m aware of more than a few preceptors and lecturers who are commuting from very far away because they can’t afford to live in Boston. In a sense, that’s a real problem as well. Don’t you want your faculty to have ties to the community, particularly so they can also use that community knowledge to help their students? For me, the fact that I was in Boston and that I know folks who are in industry, policy, government, education and a whole bunch of things here allowed me to connect a lot of my students to people that they needed to be talking to for their thesis or capstone projects. I think that most contingent faculty probably don’t have those community ties and can’t be expected to.”
—Michaela J. Thompson, preceptor in ESPP, 2018-22
Time caps make it harder to support undergraduate advising.
“I have advisees who are juniors who, in their four years at Harvard, will have had a different advisor every single year.”’
—Julia S. Coyoli, lecturer on Social Studies, 2024-28
“My first year, I had a wonderful senior whom I advised, but I was advising this project on Victorian literature, which I don’t know if you look around my classroom here…” [There don’t appear to be any books about Victorian literature in the room.] “I know that she probably would have preferred to have kept her old advisor, who was an expert in Victorian literature.”
—Nicholas F. Bloom, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2023-26
“It makes it harder to develop and sustain those relationships when you know that there’s a sword of Damocles hanging over your head and that you won’t be around.”
—Thomas A. Dichter ’08, lecturer on Hist & Lit; 2015-20, extended 2020-25 via taking on an administrative role
“I try not to let the anxiety of ‘okay, I won't be here for a long time’ get in the way of providing support for them while I am here.”
—Andi T. Remoquillo, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2024-27
“At least one student who didn’t continue in History and Literature because I wasn’t able to work with them subsequently. There were some other interdepartmental politics involved, but it made me realize that this policy can result in a loss of students to other departments, other concentrations, other programs in which they can have a dedicated thesis mentor throughout their time.”
—John Boonstra, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2019-22
“It was incredibly uncomfortable and awkward to have students be like, ‘see you next year!’ And I’m like, ‘You won't, actually, I'm sorry.’ I felt like I was abandoning them, but that was not my choice.”
—Michaela J. Thompson, preceptor in ESPP, 2018-22
But they’ve enjoyed…
“The students and colleagues. They’re great minds, they’re curious, live thinkers.”
—Ana I. Keilson, lecturer on Social Studies, 2017-23
“The kind of relationship you build with somebody when you’re in the syntax of their sentence with them, and trying to talk through how to make an idea clearer, and seeing that idea actually emerging through that syntactical work is just the best. It’s a thing I enjoy every day.”
—J. Gregory Given, preceptor in Expos, 2021-29
“My students take things that I get to teach them, and they have published work that they’ve done from my class, which is used in other classrooms around the world. They have contributed to the culture of vulnerable language in meaningful ways.”
—Sara M. Feldman, preceptor in Yiddish, 2018-26
Last but not least — these workers have messages for University administration.
“Overhaul university governance to include student and faculty voices.”
—Ana I. Keilson, lecturer on Social Studies, 2017-23
“Harvard has been very clear: ‘You are not the University. We are the University. The administrators and the tenure faculty are part of it, but you are people who work here. You’re contingent workers.’ I refuse to accept that narrative.”
—Nicholas F. Bloom, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2023-26
“If the purpose is as advertised, if we really want to teach students how to have difficult conversations with each other and to wrestle with ideas that they might find disagreeable, and take on a bunch of information from a bunch of different sources, and use words on the page to conjure understanding, to produce knowledge for themselves — instead of just becoming ever more talented prompters of AI machines and whatever else — all of this is going to take resources, and it feels to me like for decades, the institution has continually chosen not to invest its resources in that core mission.”
—J. Gregory Given, preceptor in Expos, 2021-29
“When I was [at Harvard], I was making $60-65,000 a year — which is not a lot to live in the Cambridge area — but compared to some of the other expenses that the University takes on, it’s relatively small. The benefit payout is very great in terms of quality of education, in terms of prestige and esteem for the University, as well as for faculty. We are a vibrant and necessary part of the University ecosystem and economy.”
—John Boonstra, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2019-22
“There’s a Silicon Valley-style logic that suggests that throwing everything up in the air and starting again every couple of years is a way to get some improved level of innovation — something that I just think is completely disconnected from the way that serious thinking and teaching work.”
—Chloe I. Hawkey, lecturer on Hist & Lit, 2024-27
“How would you feel if you had to leave your job in three years, no matter how good you were at it?”
—Leslie J. Fernandez, program director of EMR; lecturer on Asian American Studies, formerly under time cap 2023-24
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—Magazine writer Joanna Lin can be reached at joanna.lin@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @linsaniiity.
—Magazine writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at amann.mahajan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @amannmahajan.