Research seminar delivered to the Centre for Public Policy Research at King's College London's lunchtime seminar series (online).

Abstract:

Using data from interviews with academic staff in English higher education (HE), this paper investigates experiences of (un)belonging through administrative (il)legibility in relation to a figure termed the ‘hegemonic academic'.

I contend that HE culture is dominated by competitiveness, that competitiveness is culturally associated with a highly-valued form of masculinity conceptualised by Connell and Messerschmidt (2005) as ‘hegemonic masculinity’, and demonstrate that in a neoliberalised HE environment defined by precarity and insecurity, the need to emulate the gendered ideal of the hegemonic academic becomes increasingly urgent not just to succeed but to survive.