I taught a no-pay course at Harvard.
I was a postdoc writing a report for the President’s office on Harvard & Slavery, and was asked to teach an undergrad seminar on that topic. No extra money, and it wasn’t required. I did it to share the embargoed research w/ students.
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(Please don’t make a joke about the lack of pay and the topic - that’s not the point I’m making.)
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In retrospect, I shouldn’t have done it for $0.00, but I wanted to get the info out to students. It was the only way Harvard would let me discuss it in public. We held a public event (packed!) for students to share their final papers.
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That was a wild course.
Someone edited the course catalog description to add “and abolition” without telling me.
A week before the semester, the president’s office told me I had to change the syllabus (approved by the hist dept!) to remove any of my current research 
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I dunno, something something cancel culture.
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In order to teach the course in the history department, I had to be appointed a lecturer. Since I had previously been a lecturer in another program at Harvard, this was simple.
But now I wonder if there is technically a no-pay job posting somewhere out there in Harvardland.
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If anyone is interested in learning more about the legacy of Harvard and slavery, and in supporting descendants, please follow and support
some earlier student research (2011) at
harvardandslavery.com
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I’m curious if you had to respond to a real job ad and submit real materials, and be subjected to a real search committee. Mind blown that this is real
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Not quite the same, but if I promote one of my postdocs to research assistant professor, there is an application they have to submit & yes, I have to construct a search committee (w 3 people) & yes I have to justify why I'm not hiring one of the other poor bastards that apply
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Im sorry but the irony of writing a report about Harvard & SLAVERY & then not getting paid to teach a course about...
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“and abolition”
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Yes, just a regular undergrad seminar in the history department.
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The irony! Somebody put a crazy amount of unpaid labour into a course on slavery.
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Students paid tuition for the course? It was credit-bearing? If yes to these, you were cheated-regardless of embargoed content.
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Thank you for sharing. Universities are happy to exploit people they already employ in some other way to do no-pay “optional” teaching. A sneaky way to play on our love for matl & students. As a scholar, it’s easy to succumb to such an invitation.
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And even more important for situations like to be documented in searchable public places for future historians to write about our current era
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Such a frustrating experience and sadly none of it is surprising. Thank you for sharing.
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I mean, people aren't showing enough sympathy for Harvard. Everybody knows they are just scrimping by and living paycheck to paycheck.
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Was the course considered part of your postdoc such that you prepped, taught, and graded on work time instead of other tasks?
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It wasn’t in my job description,so I could have said no to teaching the course and still been paid the same for my research/writing. Yes, I planned/taught/graded during work time.
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Like employment or civil rights law applies at universities (it doesn’t).
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Yes, it was just a normal for-credit course like any other in the history department.
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I do a lot of work, including ALL of my research, outside of my work contract which only pays me to teach. It has become my world, but I only get paid for it when I raise money for grants. And then that money gets used for course releases (assuming they are approved.).
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An institution not providing compensation for a course examining its own history of slavery indicates a serious institutional problem. I am working damn hard to find institutions/funding sources that will compensate me and my students.
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Thanks for sharing this. OTOH it sounds like an amazing course and great teaching opportunity. OTOH the idea that any place would have you teach a course ON SLAVERY for free is just unbelievable (let alone Harvard)!!!! SMDH 
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Hey Caitlin, thanks for taking the time with my questions on your course. Lots to think about. Twitter is a difficult medium for subtlety, so I hope I avoided sounding judgmental.
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Your tweet was quoted in an article by The New York Times
![Liza Loza, a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis, taught a discussion section for which she was not paid.](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="680" height="382"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
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