ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how the two prongs of denial, overt and repressed, are used by various social agents in controversies surrounding academic labor not performed by the professoriate itself. In essence, denial provides a set of rhetorical resources that institutional actors deploy, both strategically and implicitly, in framing conceptualizations of labor as it takes place throughout the system of higher education, including among students and contingent academics. One of the most dramatic stories to emerge in the contemporary American university is the effort on the part of graduate student employees (GSEs) to form unions in order to win better wages, benefits, and working conditions. GSEs have been organized and represented by labor unions for over forty years, beginning with the Teaching Assistants Association (TAA) at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, which was formed largely in response to state budget cuts that would have rescinded the out-of-state portion of the tuition waiver.
