Prefiguring a feminist academia: a multi-vocal autoethnography on the creation of a feminist space in a neoliberal university

Abstract

Purpose This paper is a reflective piece on a PhD workshop on “feminist organising” organised in November 2017 by the three authors of this paper. Calls to resist the neoliberalisation of academia through academic activism are gaining momentum. The authors’ take on academic activism builds on feminist thought and practice, a tradition that remains overlooked in contributions on resisting neoliberalisation in academia. Feminism has been long committed to highlighting the epistemic inequalities endured by women and marginalised people in academia. This study aims to draw on radical feminist perspectives and on the notion of prefigurative organising to rethink the topic of academic activism. How can feminist academic activism resist the neoliberal academia? Design/methodology/approach This study explores this question through a multi-vocal autoethnographic account of the event-organising process. Findings The production of feminist space within academia was shaped through material and epistemic tensions. The study critically reflects on the extent to which the event can be read as prefigurative feminist self-organising and as neoliberal academic career-focused self-organising. The study concludes that by creating a space for sisterhood and learning, the empowering potential of feminist organising is experienced. Originality/value The study shows both the difficulties and potentials for feminist organising within the university. The concept of “prefiguration” provides a theoretical framework enabling us to grasp the ongoing efforts on which feminist organising relies. It escapes a dichotomy between success and failure that fosters radical pessimism or optimism potentially hindering political action.

strategies to promote dignified and feminist academia: some collaborative reflections from Chile

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“…As we will argue later, gender inequalities can be, at least in part, countered with micro- and macro-level feminist practices; ‘small acts within the everyday are powerful political moments, which challenge accepted and ingrained ways of being and working, as well as having a potential ripple effect’ (Twaites and Pressland, 2017, p. 15). Creating collaborative spaces for mutual learning and sisterhood is thus essential for a more feminist academia (Deschner, Dorion and Salvatori, 2020). As Aline Vogt (2020, p. 7) points out, ‘We need to think about the kind of institution our generation wants to inherit.…”

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“…We contend that mainstream responsible learning remedies such as Athena Swan, which are associated with institutional sponsorship and resources, can be leveraged as ‘counter-narratives’ (Czarniawska, 2016; Frandsen et al, 2016) to re-engage staff and students based on localised, grass roots action. By enacting a positive hidden curriculum, it is possible to ‘co-create’ and ‘foster different configurations of narrative patterns’ within everyday practice (Deschner et al, 2020; Gabriel, 2016; Gabriel and Connell, 2010) for what it means to be a student and academic in a business school and wider community. In doing so, the stage is set for reimagining pedagogy in HEIs.…”

“…As Deschner et al (2020) argued, resisting the neoliberal university requires finding theoretical tools that encourage taking action rather than falling into despair. In this study, we evade the 'insidious power structures' (The Kintsugi Collective et al, 2021) of the managerialist university by creatively using the resources (time and money) associated with the popularised global EDI agenda within HEIs (Ahmed, 2006).…”

A feminist and decolonial perspective on passing the test in activist ethnography

“…The researcher is positioned inside the object of study, not only personally, but also politically, and derives knowledge from an open reflection about belonging inside (Harding and Norberg, 2014). This renders the distinction between autoethnography (Haynes, 2011;Doloriert and Sambrook, 2012;Deschner et al, 2021) and ethnography irrelevant, since the self is intrinsically included in activist ethnography as part of the object of study. Activist ethnography can thus achieve the same sort of reflexivity that autoethnography is often deemed to reach (Humphreys, 2005).…”