hold a courtesy appointment

[ostap77]

"The hardest and most dramatic hits,arguably,are the elimination of the recently revamped Science,Technology ,and Society Program (where I hold a courtesy appointment and for which I had been teaching disability studies)............"

What does "to hold a coustesy appointment" mean in this sentence?

[shroob]

"The hardest and most dramatic hits,arguably,are the elimination of the recently revamped Science,Technology ,and Society Program (where I hold a courtesy appointment and for which I had been teaching disability studies)............"

What does "to hold a coustesy appointment" mean in this sentence?

A courtesy appointment (or 'professor by courtesy') is defined by wikipedia as:

A professor who is primarily and originally associated with one academic department, but has become officially associated with a second department, institute, or program within the university and has assumed a professor's duty in that second department as well, could be called a "professor by courtesy." Example: "Joshua H. Alman is Professor of Law and Professor, by courtesy, of Genetics at Stanford University". Usually, the second courtesy appointment carries with it fewer responsibilities and fewer benefits than a single full appointment (for example, affiliated professors rarely have voting rights in their courtesy department). Because affiliated professors are often listed following a partition in the catalog copy or web page for the department, they are often called "professors below the line" or "below the diamonds" or a similar phrase.

So in your example, the speaker is a teacher in one department (not stated which one), however, is also teaching a 'Disability Studies' class.