A Man’s Academy? The Dissertation Process as Feminist Resistance
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2008
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.2202/1940-7890.1010
Abstract
The academy is a gendered institution that promotes and requires the adoption of a particularly masculine way of learning and producing knowledge. Commonly accepted notions of what constitutes a successful academic devalue emotions, vulnerability, and dependence in interpersonal relationships. Using Bourdieu’s concept of the habitus, our analysis focuses on a collaborative narrative of a critical incident between a graduate student working on her dissertation and a faculty member pursuing tenure. In our analysis we critique the masculine bias of the academic habitus, revealing how graduate student and faculty interactions can replicate gendered power relations in the academy and shedding light on avenues of resistance. We conclude by explaining how the practice of co-mentoring within a feminist framework may help conceptualize a new kind of successful academic-one who sees the rationality in emotions and the emotions in rationality, as well as the strength in vulnerability and the vulnerability in strength.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
No
Citation / Publisher Attribution
NASPA Journal About Women in Higher Education, v. 1, issue 1, p. 183-203
Scholar Commons Citation
Wolgemuth, Jennifer R. and Harbour, Clifford P., "A Man’s Academy? The Dissertation Process as Feminist Resistance" (2008). Educational and Psychological Studies Faculty Publications. 189.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/esf_facpub/189
