Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Resisting Neoliberalism in Higher Education Volume II pp 43–64Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Weighing Up Futures: Experiences of Giving Up an Academic Career

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Palgrave Critical University Studies ((PCU))

Abstract

This chapter addresses the experiences of academics who have chosen to leave the profession early, or are seriously considering doing so. Drawing on thirty-four interviews with academics or former academics from Australia, the UK and beyond, it explores five themes: who is leaving; why they are leaving; the decision-making process; impact on their self; and the impact on others. The paper contributes to the literature on academic identity by analysing times when it is rendered precarious, actively negotiated or reformulated. Among its findings are: the importance of gender, the distresses of casualisation, the persistence of a strong sense of academic vocation, the impact of work intensification on physical and mental wellbeing, and academics’ discovery of healthy and intellectually satisfying professional lives outside the academy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Michael Power, The Audit Society: Rituals of Verification. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.

  2. 2.

    For an engagement with and summary of some of this literature, see Ruth Barcan, Academic Life and Labour in the New University: Hope and Other Choices (Farnham: Ashgate Publishers, 2013): 4–12.

  3. 3.

    Rebecca Schuman, “‘I Quit Academia,’ An Important, Growing Subgenre of American Essays.” Slate, 24 Oct. 2013. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/10/24/quitting_academic_jobs_professor_zachary_ernst_and_other_leaving_tenure.html

  4. 4.

    Methodology is, as Marcel Granet reportedly joked, “the road after one has travelled it” (qtd. in Carlo Ginzburg, “Witches and Shamans,” New Left Review 200 (1993): 75).

  5. 5.

    Liz Bondi, “The Place of Emotions in Research: From Partitioning Emotion and Reason to the Emotional Dynamics of Research Relationships,” in Emotional Geographies, ed. Joyce Davidson, Liz Bondi and Mick Smith (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2005): 231–46.

  6. 6.

    I use this possibly outmoded term, and occasionally the word “tenured” since the alternative –”continuing” – is confusing in this context.

  7. 7.

    Megan Kimber, “The Tenured ‘Core’ and the Tenuous ‘Periphery’: The Casualisation of Academic Work in Australian Universities,” Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 25, no. 1 (2003): 41–50.

  8. 8.

    Thanks to Karen-Anne for her efficient and insightful assistance. Thanks too to Julie-Ann Robson for her much-needed assistance with various technological aspects of the recruitment process. The project was supported by a small grant from the University of Sydney.

  9. 9.

    Angela McRobbie, “The Politics of Feminist Research: Between Talk, Text and Action,” Feminist Review 12 (1982): 46–57.

  10. 10.

    J. Stuart Bunderson, and Jeffery A. Thompson, “The Call of the Wild: Zookeepers, Callings, and the Double-Edged Sword of Deeply Meaningful Work,” Administrative Science Quarterly 54, no. 1 (2009): 32–57; Ruth Barcan, Academic Life and Labour in the New University: Hope and Other Choices (Farnham: Ashgate Publishers, 2013): 78–81, 129–130; and Ruth Barcan, “Paying Dearly for Privilege: Conceptions, Experiences and Temporalities of Vocation in Academic Life,” Pedagogy, Culture & Society (2017): 1–17. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2017.1358207

  11. 11.

    Ryan D. Duffy, and Bryan J. Dik, “Research on Calling: What Have we Learned and Where are we Going?” Journal of Vocational Behavior 83 (2013): 428–36, accessed November 2, 2016, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.06.006

  12. 12.

    Hannah Forsyth. A History of the Modern University (Sydney: New South Publishing, 2014).

  13. 13.

    Barcan, Academic life and Labour, 133–4.

  14. 14.

    Arthur W. Frank, The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics. Chicago: Chicago UP, p. 145.

  15. 15.

    All participants’ names are pseudonyms. I would like to thank everyone – including the very many whom I was unable to interview – for their willingness to participate in this research.

  16. 16.

    Cassidy R. Sugimoto, et al., “Global Gender Disparities in Science,” Nature 504, no. 7479 (2013): 211–13; King et al., “Men Set Their Own Cites High: Gender and Self-Citation across Fields and Over Time.” Paper presented to American Sociological Association annual conference, Chicago, IL, 24 August 2015. Retrieved from www.eigenfactor.org/gender/self-citation/SelfCitation.pdf

  17. 17.

    Ruth Barcan, “Learning to be an Academic: Tacit and Explicit Pedagogies,” in Cultural Pedagogies and Human Conduct, ed. Megan Watkins, Greg Noble and Catherine Driscoll (Milton Park, Abingdon: Routledge, 2015), 134.

  18. 18.

    Evan Harris, The Art of Quitting (Sydney: ABC Books, 2005), 26.

  19. 19.

    Bruce Macfarlane, “The Morphing of Academic Practice: Unbundling and the Rise of the Para-Academic,” Higher Education Quarterly 65(1) (2011): 59–73.

  20. 20.

    I mean this term neutrally, without the negative connotations sometimes attached to it, especially in North America. Indeed, if it has any emotional valence at all, it is actually one of defiance, as in “I quit!” For a description of the burgeoning online phenomenon of “quit lit”, see Schuman, I Quit Academia.

Bibliography

  • Barcan, Ruth. “Paying Dearly for Privilege: Conceptions, Experiences and Temporalities of Vocation in Academic Life.” Pedagogy, Culture & Society (2017): 1–17. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2017.1358207

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. “Learning to be an Academic: Tacit and Explicit Pedagogies.” In Cultural Pedagogies and Human Conduct, edited by Megan Watkins, Greg Noble and Catherine Driscoll, 129–143. Milton Park, Abingdon: Routledge, 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Academic Life and Labour in the New University: Hope and Other Choices. Farnham: Ashgate Publishers, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bondi, Liz. “The Place of Emotions in Research: From Partitioning Emotion and Reason to the Emotional Dynamics of Research Relationships.” In Emotional Geographies, edited by Joyce Davidson, Liz Bondi and Mick Smith, 231–46. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunderson, J. Stuart, and Jeffery A. Thompson. “The Call of the Wild: Zookeepers, Callings, and the Double-Edged Sword of Deeply Meaningful Work.” Administrative Science Quarterly 54, no. 1 (2009): 32–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duffy, Ryan D. and Bryan J. Dik. “Research on Calling: What Have we Learned and Where are we Going?” Journal of Vocational Behavior 83 (2013): 428–36. Accessed November 2, 2016. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.06.006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forsyth, Hannah. A History of the Modern University. Sydney: New South Publishing, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, Arthur W. The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics. Chicago: Chicago UP, 1997.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ginzburg, Carlo. “Witches and Shamans.” New Left Review 200, no. July-Aug (1993): 75–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Evan. The Art of Quitting. Sydney: ABC Books, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimber, Megan. “The Tenured ‘Core’ and the Tenuous ‘Periphery’: The Casualisation of Academic Work in Australian Universities.” Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 25, no. 1 (2003): 41–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, Molly M, Carl T. Bergstrom, Shelley J. Correll, Jennifer Jacquet, and Jevin D. West. “Men Set Their Own Cites High: Gender and Self-Citation across Fields and Over Time.” Paper presented to American Sociological Association annual conference, Chicago, IL, 24 August 2015. Retrieved from www.eigenfactor.org/gender/self-citation/SelfCitation.pdf

  • Macfarlane, Bruce. “The Morphing of Academic Practice: Unbundling and the Rise of the Para-Academic.” Higher Education Quarterly 65(1) (2011): 59–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McRobbie, Angela. “The Politics of Feminist Research: Between Talk, Text and Action.” Feminist Review 12, no. Oct. (1982): 46–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Power, Michael. The Audit Society: Rituals of Verification. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schuman, Rebecca. “‘I Quit Academia,’ An Important, Growing Subgenre of American Essays.” Slate, 24 Oct. 2013. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/10/24/quitting_academic_jobs_professor_zachary_ernst_and_other_leaving_tenure.html

  • Sugimoto, Cassidy R, Vincent Lariviere, CQ Ni, Yves Gingras, and Blaise Cronin. “Global Gender Disparities in Science.” Nature 504, no. 7479 (2013): 211–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Ruth Barcan

Authors
  1. Ruth Barcan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ruth Barcan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD, Australia

    Catherine Manathunga

  2. School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Dorothy Bottrell

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Barcan, R. (2019). Weighing Up Futures: Experiences of Giving Up an Academic Career. In: Manathunga, C., Bottrell, D. (eds) Resisting Neoliberalism in Higher Education Volume II. Palgrave Critical University Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95834-7_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95834-7_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-95833-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-95834-7

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation