With social media craze and higher education crisis as parents, the hashtags #alt-ac, #post-ac, and #para-ac refer to people classified by their work, education, and attitude toward the academy, who opt or aim for careers across the public and private, employee and entrepreneur work spaces within and without higher education, and who by some lights are laying foundation for a new academy.
Until recently I was unaware that I might
be classified as an “acer” – as in “hacker.”
Like many others I do not fit nicely under
any one of the three hashtags, though best fit is a reluctant post-ac. For a decade I worked as an adjunct until
five years ago when romantic and labour market forces left me without even this
tenuous access to faculty work.