Abstract
This chapter draws on ethnographic fieldwork with women sociologists working in UK academia and questions the extent to which feminist positions are able to ‘become’, ‘arrive’, or assert themselves as legitimate within the academy. Orienting itself around specific accounts of how these women negotiate the demands of the Research Excellence Framework, the chapter focuses on narratives of writing practices and how these relate to the production of knowledge understood as legitimate within the discipline. Participants’ accounts show how feminist positions work in paradoxical and contradictory ways—as supportive, generative, and creative, but also demanding of onerous and time-consuming emotional labour, thus arguably disadvantaging the feminist academic. Through attentiveness to the institutional and affective conditions of the writing lives of participants, the chapter raises the provocative question of how far it is really possible to ‘write oneself in’—to what extent is it feasible for a feminist position to be a legitimate(d) position?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The Research Excellence Framework assesses research done in UK higher education institutions. It is framed around a benchmark of ‘excellence’ and ranks written outputs of researchers from ‘unclassified’ to four star. The exercise is conducted across ‘units of assessment’ which broadly map on to disciplines. These are judged by a panel of senior academics in the discipline who read and score the submissions. Full-time academics are required to submit four ‘outputs’ to the Research Excellence Framework exercise. In preparation for this, many departments run a ‘mini-REF’ in which colleagues grade one another’s outputs.
References
Addison, M. (2012). Knowing your way within and across classed spaces: The (re)making and (un)doing of identities of value within higher education in the UK. In Y. Taylor (Ed.), Educational diversity: The subject of difference and different subjects (pp. 236–256). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ahmed, S. (2010). The promise of happiness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Ahmed, S. (2012). Diversity: Problems and paradoxes for black feminists. In Y. Taylor (Ed.), Educational diversity: The subject of difference and different subjects (pp. 203–218). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ahmed, S. (2013). Making feminist points. Retrieved October 10, 2013, from http://feministkilljoys.com/2013/09/11/making-feminist-points/
Ahmed, S. (2014). Willful subjects. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Armstrong, P., & Armstrong, H. (2001). Thinking it through: Women, work and caring in the new millennium. Halifax: Healthy Balance Research Program.
Back, L. (2015). Why everyday life matters: Class, community and making life livable. Sociology, 49(5), 820–836.
Bhambra, G. (2007a). Rethinking modernity: Postcolonialism and the sociological imagination. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bhambra, G. (2007b). Sociology and postcolonialism: Another ‘missing’ revolution? Sociology, 41(5), 871–884.
Bhambra, G. (2014). A sociological dilemma: Race, segregation and US sociology. Current Sociology, 62(4), 472–492.
Billig, M. (2013). Learn to write badly: How to succeed in the social sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Burton, S. (2015). The monstrous ‘white theory boy’: Symbolic capital, pedagogy and the politics of knowledge. Sociological Research Online, 20(3), 14.
Burton, S. (2016). Becoming sociological: Disciplinarity and a sense of ‘home’. Sociology, 50(5), 984–992.
Connell, R. (2007). Southern theory: The global dynamics of knowledge in social science. Cambridge: Polity.
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. The University of Chicago Legal Forum, 140, 139–167.
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.
Felski, R. (2015). The limits of critique. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Gill, R. (2009). Breaking the silence: The hidden injuries of neo-liberal academia. In R. Flood & R. Gill (Eds.), Secrecy and silence in the research process: Feminist reflections (pp. 228–244). London: Routledge.
Grant, L., Kennelly, I., & Ward, K. (2000). Revisiting the gender, marriage, and parenthood puzzle in scientific careers. Women’s Studies Quarterly, 28, 62–83.
Hemmings, C. (2011). Why stories matter: The political grammar of feminist theory. London: Duke.
Hile Bassett, R. (2005). Introduction. In R. Hile Bassett (Ed.), Parenting and professing: Balancing family and work with an academic career (pp. 1–16). Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
Hill Collins, P. (1990 [2000]). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis. In C. Calhoun, J. Gertis, J. Moody, S. Pfaff, & I. Virk (Eds.), (2012) Contemporary sociological theory (pp. 407–416). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
hooks, b. (1989). Talking back: Thinking feminist, thinking back. Boston, MA: Southend Press.
Hoskins, K. (2010). The price of success? The experiences of three senior working class female academics in the UK. Women’s Studies International Forum, 33, 134–140.
Hunter, L. A., & Leahy, E. (2010). Parenting and research productivity: New evidence and methods. Social Studies of Science, 40(3), 433–451.
Marshall, B. L., & Witz, A. (2004). Introduction: Feminist encounters with sociological theory. In B. L. Marshall & A. Witz (Eds.), Engendering the social: Feminist encounters with sociological theory. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Maude, K. (2014). Citation and marginalisation: The ethics of feminism in Medieval Studies. Journal of Gender Studies, 23(3), 247–261.
Meagher, S. M. (2012). Feminist transformations. The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 26(2), 200–210.
Phipps, A. (2014). The politics of the body: Gender in a neoliberal and neoconservative age. Cambridge: Polity.
Phipps, A. (2016). Whose personal is more political? Experience in contemporary feminist politics. Feminist Theory, 0(0), 1–19.
Reay, D. (2000). Dim dross: Marginalised women both inside and outside the academy. Women’s Studies International Forum, 23(1), 13–21.
Roseneil, S., & Budgeon, S. (2004). Cultures of intimacy and care beyond ‘the family’: Personal life and social change in the early 21st century. Current Sociology, 52(2), 135–159.
Sang, K. J. C. (2016). Gender, ethnicity and feminism: An intersectional analysis of the lived experiences feminist academic women in UK higher education. Journal of Gender Studies, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2016.1199380.
Santos, A. C. (2014). Academia without walls? Multiple belongings and the implications of feminist and LGBT/queer political engagement. In Y. Taylor (Ed.), The entrepreneurial university: Engaging publics, intersecting impacts (pp. 9–26). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Smart, C. (2013). Touching lives: Writing the sociological and the personal. In J. Stacey & J. Wolff (Eds.), Writing otherwise: Experiments in cultural criticism (pp. 61–72). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Thwaites, R., & Pressland, A. (2017). Being an early career feminist academic: Global perspectives, experiences and challenges. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council grant number B106424E. I would like to thank all participants who generously gave their time to the research.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Burton, S. (2018). Writing Yourself In? The Price of Playing the (Feminist) Game in the Neoliberal University. In: Taylor, Y., Lahad, K. (eds) Feeling Academic in the Neoliberal University. Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64224-6_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64224-6_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64223-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64224-6
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)