How to become an academic, and alienate people: the working-class academic
Book chapter
Albary, S. 2023. How to become an academic, and alienate people: the working-class academic. in: Robinson, S., Bristow, A. and Ratle, O. (ed.) Doing Academic Careers Differently: Portraits of Academic Life London, UK Routledge. pp. 116-119
Chapter title | How to become an academic, and alienate people: the working-class academic |
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Authors | Albary, S. |
Abstract | “She’ s still at school”. This is how my brother described me to my nephew, when the little boy asked what I did as a job. I was in the last year of my PhD. “You’re a teacher, right?” My aunt, this time, three years into my first academic role at a UK University. “You’re still writing essays?” My mother, incredulous, last month when I attempted to describe putting the finishing touches to a chapter I was writing for a book. I am the working-class academic. Well, I was. Not so, anymore. I’ve been assimilated. I’ve learnt the lingo, I wear the clothes, I’ve changed my accent, and snuck my way into the ivory tower. For a tower it is, and I’m not good with stairs. This chapter combines autoethnography, ethnographic fiction, and a sprinkling of ‘real’ academic research to present my academic career identity-trajectory. I draw upon my upbringing in a working-class family, my clumsy attempts to negotiate learning what it means to be ‘an academic’, and my identity ‘crisis’ in becoming an academic with a PhD in Art History and Theory working within a Business School. |
Keywords | Early career academic; identity; fiction |
Sustainable Development Goals | 10 Reduced inequalities |
Middlesex University Theme | Creativity, Culture & Enterprise |
Page range | 116-119 |
Book title | Doing Academic Careers Differently: Portraits of Academic Life |
Editors | Robinson, S., Bristow, A. and Ratle, O. |
Publisher | Routledge |
Place of publication | London, UK |
ISBN | |
Hardcover | 9781032212609 |
Paperback | 9781032212616 |
Electronic | 9781003267553 |
Publication dates | |
Online | 28 Jul 2023 |
28 Jul 2023 | |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 01 Jun 2022 |
Deposited | 03 Jun 2024 |
Output status | Published |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003267553-18 |
Language | English |
https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/9wyvq
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