Academic Aunties

In this episode, we are talking about the academic job market! We challenge the notion that academia is meritocratic. We highlight how fraught applying for academics job can be for many marginalized folks, especially those who are first-gen, working-class, racialized, and queer. We wonder whether typical job market advice, such as moving anywhere there is a job and prioritizing top schools (R1 schools for Americans) over other schools makes sense. And we also address ways to try to take back agency in a fundamentally messed up and inequitable structure.

Joining us today is Dr. Mary Anne S. Mendoza (@MaryAnneSMM), Assistant Professor of Political Science at CalState Pomona, and Dr. Robert Diaz, Associate Professor in the Women & Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto.

Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Twitter at @AcademicAuntie or by e-mail at [email protected]. Need some auntie wisdom? Send an #AskAnAcademicAuntie question to academicaunties.com/ask.

Related Links

Have they thought about what they’re asking?: the inequity of job applications

By Alana Cattapan

(https://hookandeye.ca/2017/03/16/guest-post-have-they-thought-about-what-theyre-asking-the-inequity-of-job-applications/)

The academic job market is a nightmare. Here’s one way to fix it

By Colin Dickey

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/04/15/job-market-academics-is-nightmare-heres-one-way-fix-it/)

Even ‘Valid’ Student Evaluations Are ‘Unfair'

By Colleen Flaherty

(https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/02/27/study-student-evaluations-teaching-are-deeply-flawed)

The Hidden Challenges for Successful First-Generation Ph.D.s

By Bailey B. Smolarek

(https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2019/10/09/first-generation-phd-student-describes-her-struggles-opinion)

Transcript

Transcript will be posted approximately one week after the episode launches at academicaunties.com.

Academia. A-CAAAHHH---DEEEMM--AIYA! ACA-DEEM-YAAHH. It is a site of exclusion. For those of us who are first-generation, who are racialized, who are women, and who inhabit social locations that are traditionally unrepresented in this space, academia is full of landmines. This is why we need academic aunties. This podcast will talk about how to navigate this treacherous world and maybe even plant seeds for the beginnings of structural transformation. Come listen to Auntie Ethel and her friends. Coming soon to a podcast app near you!

On the Season 4 finale, we revisit Sara Ahmed's new book, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook: The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way, with our very own feminist killjoy book club!

We're joined by Rita Dhamoon, Tka Pinnock, and our very own producer, Nisha Nath. We talk about why the book resonates so much in this present moment, and why being a feminist killjoy is more important than ever.

And remember to check out our interview with Sara Ahmed (Episode 40)!

Related Links

• The Feminist Killjoy Handbook: The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way

Can we reimagine new ways living and being? Our guest this week certainly did so. After suffering tremendous loss during the pandemic, including the loss of her son, Dr. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez gave up her tenured faculty position as a full professor at UC Davis to become land steward of Remagination Farms.

Located two and a half hours north of San Francisco, Remagination Farms takes up Asian American activist Grace Lee Boggs invitation to "re-imagine everything."

In our conversation, we talk about how devastating loss and heartache can push us to radically change the way we live, and about what it means to take education away from the corporate university to the people.

"The time has come for us to reimagine everything. We have to reimagine work and go away from labor. We have to reimagine revolution and get beyond protest. We have to think not only about change in our institutions, but changes in ourselves.”

- Grace Lee Boggs

Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Twitter at @AcademicAuntie or by e-mail at [email protected].

In academia, we assume that our value rests solely with our brains. The smarter we are, the more grants and publications we have, the more value we give to our institutions, to our fields, to our professions.

What this means is that anything that gets in the way of our ability to produce is seen as a distraction. Having a personal life is a distraction. Trying to build a family is a distraction. Pregnancy is a distraction. Seeking fertility treatments, going through miscarriages, giving birth, getting abortions. These are all distractions.

This of course, is deeply problematic. On this episode, we speak to Dr. Alana Cattapan, an expert when it comes to all things reproduction related, including serving as Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Reproduction at the University of Waterloo.

We talk about the need to shift the norms of silence around fertility, around pregnancy and miscarriage and abortion, and recognizing the complexities of our, as we talk about, our messy, leaky bodies.

Related Links

• Some States Are Turning Miscarriages and Stillbirths Into Criminal Cases Against Women
• The Changing Voice of the Anti-Abortion Movement: The Rise of "Pro-Woman" Rhetoric in Canada and the United States, by Paul Saurette and Kelly Gordon
• Reproductive rights backsliding around the world
• Donations to Planned Parenthood
• Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights
• National Abortion Federation

Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on BlueSky, Instagram, or by e-mail at [email protected].