There are multiple ways to embody and perform scholarship in the academy. At most universities and colleges, professional activities are divided into three basic categories–research, instruction, service. Each year, professors undergo “annual review,” an assessment of how they have performed in each of these areas over the past 12 months. Depending on the institution and a scholar’s contract, the weights and importance of each area will differ. Precisely what constitutes research or service, instruction or research is not always clear, and in any given annum, the specific activities performed in one category may look different even though the category itself is static year to year. These differences are amplified when the predictable patterns of academic life are disrupted by unexpected circumstances, opportunities or crises. Throughout my career, I have never witnessed circumstances as disruptive as those produced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the present moment, it might be impossible to over-estimate the impact of the novel coronavirus on higher education. Universities and colleges across the United States canceled study-abroad programs, first in Italy and then throughout much of Europe. As early as March 3, institutions began to cancel non-essential international travel followed by domestic travel less than ten days later. Academic organizations with conferences in March and April canceled their events, while societies with conference plans in May and June are in a holding pattern, as they wait to see how events develop. Face to face instruction is prohibited at most institutions, and faculty have spent the past week figuring out how to move their courses online and precisely what it means to schedule a “Zoom Conference.” Students who left campuses for spring break are being told that they cannot return, and other students, especially international students, who did not travel for break find themselves in a difficult position and are sometimes forced to leave their campus dorm. From the recruitment of new graduate students to the hiring of faculty and staff, the normal modes of doing business in higher education seems to be up for grabs.

And yet, at this moment, I am reminded again of the privileges provided by the academic profession, privileges that many workers in our global economy deserve but do not often receive. As instructors, we can move many of our classes online, continuing to teach students at a distance. Research is disrupted, especially in those disciplines that require team collaboration and lab processes, but other forms of research can be pursued. So far it would seem that colleges and universities will continue to pay faculty, researchers, and staff and one can hope that institutions of higher education will not panic or walk away from the employees that have made their institutions successful.

Ironically, one of the most tenuous categories of faculty on college campuses, the tenured or tenured track professor of humanities, may be in the most privileged position of all. Much of the secondary literature that informs their scholarship is online or can be ordered from Amazon.com. Because they perform significant aspects of their research alone, with books and archived or digital media spread around them, they can continue to write and publish even though they are working from home. Learning how to teach online is a challenge, but moving a humanities course into a virtual environment is much easier than transferring an engineering lab or chemistry class to the web. Thus, in many ways, even though the research, teaching, and service of everyone in higher education will be disrupted for months, it is important to recognize some of these privileges.

Unfortunately, these privileges are not distributed equally. Contingent faculty, graduate students, and university staff experience more precarity than tenured associate and full professors. Scholars who rely on equipment or processes that cannot be moved into a house will struggle more than those who have a home office identical to their campus office. In the weeks to come, we must be sure to protect the labor of everyone who works on a college campus or university. The COVID-19 pandemic will subside at some point. The two questions that we might ask ourselves today are what do we want to preserve about our labor through this experience and what new modes of work–especially research, instruction, and service–should we develop among these disruptive circumstances?