College of Education
Education Policy, Organization and Leadership
http://education.illinois.edu/epol/frp/tcain
Faculty Research Profiles: Timothy Reese Cain
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Assistant Professor
Education Policy, Organization and Leadership
359 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 Organizations. 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
- Assistant Professor, Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, University of Illinois, 2010--
- Assistant Professor, Educational and Organizational Leadership, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006-2010
- Visiting Assistant Professor, Educational and Organizational Leadership, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005-2006
Activities & Honors
- Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award, College of Education, 2011
- 2010 Labor History Prize: Best article by a scholar within five years of doctorate completion, Labor History, 2011
- List of Teachers Ranked Excellent by their Students, University of Illinois, 2011
- Faculty Fellow, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, 2010-2011
- List of Teachers Ranked Excellent by their Students, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010
- Faculty Fellow, College of Education, 2009-2010
- List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by their Students, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009
- 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
Grants
- Principal Investigator, An Organizing Professoriate: Post-War Unionization in American Higher Education, The Spencer Foundation, 2012
- Principal Investigator, The Howard University Locals: Race, Communism, and Faculty Unionization, Campus Research Board, 2008
Selected Publications
- Cain, T. R. (Forthcoming). “Unionized Faculty and the Political Left: Communism and the American Federation of Teachers on the Eve of World War II.” History of Education.
- Cain, T. R. (Forthcoming). “Only organized effort will find the way out": Faculty unionization at Howard University, 1918-1950. Perspectives on the History of Higher Education, 29.
- Cain, T. R. (2011). "Silence and cowardice" at the University of Michigan: World War I and the pursuit of un-American faculty. History of Education Quarterly 51(3): 297-329. More about this publication...
- Cain, T. R. & Gump, S. E. (2011). John Ervin Kirkpatrick and the rulers of American colleges. AAUP Journal of Academic Freedom 2. More about this publication...
- Cain, T. R. (2010). Learning and labor: Faculty unionization at the University of Illinois. Labor History, 51(4), 543-69. More about this publication...
Selected Links
