Abstract
Being a feminist killjoy (Ahmed, The promise of happiness. London: Duke University Press, 2010) is an uncomfortable position to hold. Sometimes this position is actively chosen and pursued as a political aim—challenging people around you, in your personal life, and through your work. Sometimes one is positioned as the killjoy by others due to presumed political beliefs or through being ‘out of place’ in the whiteness, the middle-classness, and the cissexist-ableist patriarchy of the academy. For many, just being present in academia is seen as challenging because it is a space that was not made by, or for, people ‘like you’. In this chapter I will explore how it feels to be a feminist killjoy in academia, focusing on early-career feminist academics who are in precarious positions due to contract and/or visa status. This will be based on in-depth interviews and online questionnaires with seven other feminists about their experiences, alongside reflections on my experience as a PhD student and tutor in UK academia. I explain the feminist killjoy and precarity in more detail, provide an overview of my methodology, participants’, and my own positionality, and finally present my analysis and some strategies of resistance.
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.
I define early-career feminist academics broadly, to include those who have pursued postgraduate study, identify as feminists, and want to (or wanted to) pursue academic careers. This is similar to what Lara McKenzie (2017) calls ‘aspiring academics’, focusing on those who seek stable academic employment, rather than a more fixed definition of ‘early-career’ such as those within five years (Thwaites and Pressland 2017) or eight years (Locke et al. 2016) of a PhD.
- 2.
I understand neoliberalism to broadly refer to the changing organisation of UK higher education through increased student numbers, variable tuition fees, the encouragement of a university ‘market’, including competing for funding and students, and treating students as consumers of an educational product (Holmwood 2011a, b; Bailey and Freedman 2011; Brown and Carasso 2013; Collini 2013; Whelan et al. 2013; Holmwood 2014).
- 3.
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the system for ‘assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions’ (REF 2014). The system impacts how much funding an institution receives and contributes to the ranking of UK universities, which impacts status and affects student applications and attendance, which subsequently affect tuition fee revenue. Being ‘REF-able’ means ‘one has enough publications of sufficient quality within the REF period (five to six years) to be included in the department’s submission to the REF’ (McCulloch 2017).
- 4.
For a recent discussion of early-career academic motherhood, see Bosanquet (2017).
- 5.
- 6.
The first two interviews involved one participant each. The third interview involved two participants who already knew each other. My approach was informal and feminist, in that I wanted to provide a space for my participants to explore and co-construct with me the answers to my research questions, alongside being cognisant of the power dynamics between researcher and researched and trying to take my lead from them (Letherby 2003; Hesse-Biber 2006).
- 7.
I used online questionnaires to speak to people I was unable to interview in person due to them either living elsewhere or due to limited time and availability meaning a meet up was too difficult to fit in before the chapter deadline.
- 8.
My PhD uses Dorothy Smith’s (2005) approach, institutional ethnography, in which text is understood to mean any materially replicable thing that carries meaning, for example, documents, digital texts, and videos.
- 9.
Most casual contracts at the University of Edinburgh were changed to guaranteed hours contracts after UCU challenged the widespread use of zero-hours contracts (BBC News 2013).
- 10.
The National Student Survey (NSS) is a yearly student satisfaction survey of final-year undergraduate students in the UK. It has become increasingly important, not just as a marker of student satisfaction, but also because it is often taken as a proxy for quality of teaching and course provision. In my PhD research, I look at how universities in the UK use the NSS, both to market their courses with ‘high scores’ and also to pressure teaching and other front-line staff over ‘low scores’.
- 11.
As discussed in Maddie Breeze’s chapter in this volume, imposter syndrome or imposter phenomenon is prevalent amongst high achieving women (Clance and Imes 1978) and is particularly prevalent in academia. While it is often discussed in relation to women, the experience of imposter syndrome will of course be different depending on intersecting identity categories and career stage. For example, Tokarczyk and Fay (1993) alongside Long et al. (2000) discuss the imposter syndrome experiences of working-class women academics, and Bannatyne (2015) discusses the experiences of emerging and early-career academics.
- 12.
All names are pseudonyms chosen with the participants to protect their anonymity. This is also why I am somewhat vague about certain aspects of my participants, to avoid them being identifiable.
- 13.
Required for studying in the UK as a non-European Union international student.
- 14.
While explaining my identities in this brief and somewhat abstract way does not engage with nuances of situated and relational identity, privilege and oppression, it does give a useful indication of ‘who I am’ and how I might usually move through higher education.
- 15.
Educational Futures and Fractures Conference, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK—Friday 24 February 2017.
- 16.
After my interview with Zara, I wrote a brief reflection on the interview. I did not get a chance to record my immediate impressions after the other two interviews.
- 17.
‘Racial microaggressions are brief, everyday interactions that send denigrating messages to people of colour because they belong to a racially minoritised group’ (Rollock 2012b: 517).
- 18.
#—this symbol indicates laughter in my transcripts.
References
Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organisations. Gender and Society, 4(2), 139–158.
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). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ahmed, S. (2010). The promise of happiness. London: Duke University Press.
Ahmed, S. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. London: Duke University Press.
Ahmed, S. (2016, August 27). Resignation is a feminist issue. Feminist Killjoys. [online]. Retrieved April 20, 2017, from https://feministkilljoys.com/2016/08/27/resignation-is-a-feminist-issue/
Ahmed, S. (2017). Living a feminist life. London: Duke University Press.
Bailey, M., & Freedman, D. (Eds.). (2011). The assault on universities: A manifesto for resistance. London: Pluto Press.
Bannatyne, A. (2015). When will my cover be blown? The experience of imposter syndrome in emerging and early career academics/educators. [pdf] Posters—Bond University ePublications@bond. Retrieved April 3, 2017, from http://epublications.bond.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=learn_teach_posters2015
BBC News. (2013, September 6). University of Edinburgh to end zero-hours contracts. BBC News. [online]. Retrieved April 20, 2017, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-23985884
Benjamin, L. (Ed.). (1997). Black women in the academy: Promises and perils. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
Bosanquet, A. (2017). Academic, woman, mother: Negotiating multiple subjectivities during early career. In R. Thwaites & A. Pressland (Eds.), Being an early career feminist academic: Global perspectives, experiences, and challenges (pp. 73–91). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bridger, K., & Shaw, J. (2012). Beyond ‘inclusion’: Mainstreaming equality within the curriculum. In Y. Taylor (Ed.), Educational diversity: The subject of difference and different subjects (pp. 120–137). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Brown, R., & Carasso, H. (2013). Everything for sale? The marketisation of UK higher education. London: Routledge.
Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy Theory, Research and Practice, 15(3), 1–8. [online]. Retrieved April 3, 2017, from http://www.paulineroseclance.com/pdf/ip_high_achieving_women.pdf
Collini, S. (2013). Sold out. London Review of Books, 35(20), 3–12. [online]. Retrieved October 3, 2016, from https://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n20/stefan-collini/sold-out
Goldstene, C. (2013, August 14). The emergent academic proletariat and its shortchanged students. Dissent Magazine. [online]. Retrieved April 20, 2017, from https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/the-emergent-academic-proletariat-and-its-shortchanged-students
Gouldner, A. W. (1971). The coming crisis of Western sociology. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd.
Grove, J. (2014, March 20). Black scholars still experience racism on campus. Times Higher Education. [online]. Retrieved April 20, 2017, from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/black-scholars-still-experience-racism-on-campus/2012154.article
Haritaworn, J. (2011). Perverse reproductions: Notes from the wrong side of the classroom. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 8(1), 25–28. [e-journal]. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2011.572513.
Hesse-Biber, S. N. (2006). The practice of feminist in-depth interviewing. In S. N. Hesse-Biber (Ed.), Feminist research practice: A primer (pp. 111–148). London: SAGE Publishing.
Holmwood, J. (2011a). Introduction. In J. Holmwood (Ed.), A manifesto for the public university (pp. 1–11). London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Holmwood, J. (2011b). The history of higher education reform and the Coalition’s betrayal. Open Democracy. [online]. Retrieved February 21, 2017, from https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/john-holmwood/history-of-higher-education-reform-and-coalitions-betrayal
Holmwood, J. (2014). From social rights to the market: Neoliberalism and the knowledge economy. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 33(1), 62–76.
Kelly-Irving, M. (2013, October 28). I am a disposable academic. Notes from the Research Frontier. [online]. Retrieved April 20, 2017, from https://researchfrontier.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/i-am-a-disposable-academic/
Letherby, G. (2003). Feminist research in theory and practice. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Locke, W., Freeman, R., & Rose, A. (2016). Early career social science researchers: Experiences and support needs: Methodology appendix. www.esrc.ac.uk. [online]. Retrieved April 17, 2017, from http://www.esrc.ac.uk/files/skills-and-careers/studentships/early-career-social-science-researchers-methodology-appendix/
Long, M. L., Jenkins, G. R., & Bracken, S. (2000). Imposters in the sacred grove: Working class women in the academe. The Qualitative Report, 5(3), 1–15. [online]. Retrieved April 3, 2017, from http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol5/iss3/3/?utm_source=nsuworks.nova.edu%2Ftqr%2Fvol5%2Fiss3%2F3&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages
Lopes, A., & Dewan, I. A. (2015). Precarious pedagogies? The impact of casual and zero-hour contracts in higher education. Journal of Feminist Scholarship, 7(8), 28–42.
May, R. (2011). Casualisation; here to stay? The modern university and its divided workforce. National Tertiary Educatio n Union. [online]. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from <file:///C:/Users/s0807012/Downloads/robyn_may_airaanz_res_paper_2011.pdf>
McCulloch, S. (2017, February 9). The importance of being REF-able: Academic writing under pressure from a culture of counting. LSE Impact Blog. [online]. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2017/02/09/the-importance-of-being-ref-able-academic-writing-under-pressure-from-a-culture-of-counting/
McKenzie, L. (2017). A precarious passion: Gendered and age-based insecurity among aspiring academics in Australia. In R. Thwaites & A. Pressland (Eds.), Being an early career feminist academic: Global perspectives, experiences, and challenges (pp. 31–49). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mirza, H. S. (2006). Transcendence over diversity: Black women in the academy. Policy futures in education, 4(2), 101–113.
Mirza, H. S. (2015). Decolonising higher education: Black feminism and the intersectionality of race and gender. Journal of Feminist Scholarship, 7(8), 1–12.
Pereira, M. d. M. (2012). Uncomfortable classrooms: Rethinking the role of student discomfort in feminist teaching. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 19(1), 128–135.
REF. (2014). Research excellent framework. REF2014. [online]. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from http://www.ref.ac.uk/
Rollock, N. (2012a). The invisibility of race: Intersectional reflections on the liminal space of alterity. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 15(1), 65–84.
Rollock, N. (2012b). Unspoken rules of engagement: Navigating racial microaggressions in the academic terrain. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 25(5), 517–532.
Smith, D. E. (2005). Institutional ethnography: A sociology for people. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
Solanke, I. (2017). Black female professors in the UK (February 2017). Runnymede Trust. [online]. Retrieved April 20, 2017, from https://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/BlackFemaleProfessorsFeb2017.pdf
Taylor, Y. (2012). Facts, fictions, identity constrictions: Sexuality, gender and class in higher education. In Y. Taylor (Ed.), Educational diversity: The subject of difference and different subjects (pp. 257–267). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Thwaites, R., & Pressland, A. (2017). Introduction: Being an early career feminist academic in a changing academy. In R. Thwaites & A. Pressland (Eds.), Being an early career feminist academic: Global perspectives, experiences, and challenges (pp. 1–28). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tokarczyk, M. M., & Fay, E. A. (Eds.). (1993). Working-class women in the academy: Laborers in the knowledge factory. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press.
University and College Union. (2016). Precarious work in higher education—November 2016 update. [pdf]. London: UCU. Retrieved February 21, 2017, from https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/8384/Precarious-work-in-higher-education-November-2016-update/pdf/ucu_precariouscontracts_hereport_nov16_.pdf
Whelan, A., Walker, R., & Moore, C. (Eds.). (2013). Zombies in the academy: Living death in higher education. Bristol: Intellect.
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
Murray, Ó.M. (2018). Feel the Fear and Killjoy Anyway: Being a Challenging Feminist Presence in Precarious Academia. 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_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64224-6_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64223-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64224-6
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)