BY HILARY HOULETTE
The professoriate has changed over the last several years, and it is indeed an odd time to be a faculty member in US higher education. Efforts have successfully eliminated diversity, equity, and inclusion across college campuses, while LLMs and AI technology impact how students and instructors engage with learning and assessment. The 2025 federal funding terminations were a monumental disruption to faculty research and sponsored programs, and scientific brain drain is remapping US innovation streams. Suffice it to say, the professoriate is rapidly evolving. As a newer faculty member, navigating these tensions is simply part of the work. For graduate students preparing to enter the academic job market, postdoctoral candidates in the throes of research and institutional transitions, and first-time early-career faculty just starting out, these changes feel overwhelming. I am right there with you. How do we pursue our research, teaching, and service in a sociopolitical context intent on undermining our careers and shrinking the professoriate in the process?
Having dedicated the last several years of my professional life to studying faculty engagement in higher education, I am cautiously optimistic about the future for three reasons. The first is that amid societal change, higher education is the first to respond. During World War II, new scientific technology drove US academic research and elevated the United States’ position as a global innovation leader. During the Vietnam War and civil rights movement, waves of activism on college campuses challenged us to consider what it means to couple civic engagement and higher education, which we continue to see today. While college tuition grows more expensive, democratic socialists are taking center stage within the US political theater and reaffirming higher education as a distinctly public good. Undoubtedly, we are in a transitionary period, but if history is any indicator, the influence of academics and academia will be considerable, and we have a responsibility to inform what comes next.
Second, we have entered a new technological age marked by infinite content and online engagement. In response, we must pursue projects and programs that directly impact the campuses where we work alongside the broader communities we serve. As activist scholars, we have an obligation to carefully assess to whom we are accountable. With online course instruction, our potential reach stretches far beyond the physical boundaries of our home campuses, which is both an encouraging development and a timely opportunity to reengage community-based innovation. Moreover, as we move more fully online, meaningful in-person activities rise in equal and opposite measure. When we thoughtfully and intentionally engage our communities across virtual and in-person contexts, we can leverage our discrete areas of expertise to inform the culture of academia and society at large.
Finally, the future of innovation is interdisciplinary. If we think of community engagement as expanding outward, we can think of innovation itself as drilling downward. We are tasked with exploring the depths of what we know not just within our disciplines, but through an interweaving approach that transects the arts and sciences. Knowledge and innovation have never been linear columns bracketed by academic discipline—rather, they form a matrix of expertise that crisscrosses and zigzags— yet the modern higher education system has successfully kept us siloed. I am motivated by the potential that accompanies interdisciplinary work. To this end, I not only predict greater interdisciplinary engagement, but also maintain that the future of US higher education innovation hinges on it. As thought leaders, faculty must more fully embrace crossdisciplinary research.
Whether just entering the field or long-established with tenure, higher education faculty must be prepared to meet the moment. With the multitude of social, political, technological, and economic transformations happening before us, it is easy to feel overwhelmed, if not discouraged. I challenge my faculty colleagues to resist cynicism. If history is any indicator, change accompanies progress, and higher education faculty are on the front lines of this transition. To realize the benefits that accompany change, we must first recognize the opportunity before us and then mobilize effectively. We must expand our reach to engage both our academic and nonacademic communities, while also collaborating across disciplinary orientations to push the boundaries of our research and scholarship. The future of the professoriate is not without its obstacles, but as faculty members, we can shape the trajectory and innovation itself. This indeed is an exciting prospect.
Hilary Houlette earned her doctorate from the University of Arizona and currently serves as assistant professor of educational leadership at Sam Houston State University. She can be reached at hah059@shsu.edu.
