College of Education
Educational Organization & Leadership
http://education.illinois.edu/eol/frp/tcain
Faculty Research Profiles: Timothy Reese Cain
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Assistant Professor
Educational Organization & Leadership
319 Education Building
1310 S. 6th St. MC 708
Research Biography
My research explores historical and modern issues involving faculty work and faculty workers. I examine faculty unionization, academic freedom, tenure, and academic administration. My current focus is on the earliest faculty unions affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers and the Congress of Industrial Workers. While most accounts trace faculty unions to the mid-1960s, I demonstrate that they date to 1918 and include an array of reasons for and reactions to organizing. This work explores issues of professionalization, politically motivated dismissals and attacks, and the ability of academic administrators to foster or forestall academic freedom.
My broader scholarly interests also include diversity in higher education and college student development.
Degrees
- Ph.D., Higher Education, University of Michigan, 2005
- M.A., Higher Education and Student Affairs, The Ohio State University, 1999
- B.A., History and Art History, Duke University, 1994
Key Professional Appointments
- Co-Director, Ethnography of the University Initiative, University of Illinois, 2008--
- Assistant Professor, Educational and Organizational Leadership, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006--
- Visiting Assistant Professor, Educational and Organizational Leadership, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005-2006
Activities & Honors
- Associate Editor, History of Education Quarterly, 2008- present
- Spencer Foundation Exemplary Dissertation Award, The Spencer Foundation, 2008
- Arnold O. Beckman Research Award, Campus Research Board, 2008
- List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008
- Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007
- Stanley E. and Ruth B. Dimond Best Dissertation Award, School of Education, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 2006
- Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education Best Dissertation Award, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 2006
- Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006
- Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005
- Albert Shanker Educational Research Fellowship, American Federation of Teachers, 2004-2005
- Albert M. Greenfield Research Fellowship, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, 2003-2004
Selected Publications
- Cain, T. R. (Forthcoming 2010). The first attempts to unionize the faculty. Teachers College Record 112 (3).
- Cain, T. R. (2009). The NEA's early conflict over educational freedom. American Educational History Journal, 36(2), 371-385.
- de Bessa, G.H., Abelmann, N., Cain, T. R., McDonough, T. & Pendergast, C. (2008). Interrogating the university, one archival entry at a time. Change, 40(5), 40-45.
- Cain, T. R. (2007). For education and employment: The American Federation of Teachers and academic freedom, 1926-1941. Perspectives on the History of Higher Education 26, 67-102.
Selected Links
