A collective biography of joy in academic practice

Bibliographic Data

ID3977264
AuthorsLeslie Kern (Mount Allison University), Roxanne Hawkins (0000-0002-6161-3930, University of Guelph), Roberta Hawkins, Karen Falconer Al-Hindi, Karen Falconer Al‐hindi (0000-0003-0804-7922, University of Nebraska at Omaha), Pamela Mo, Pamela Moss (University of Victoria)
Year2014
Volume15
Issue7
Pages834-851
Publication date2014-10-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial & Cultural Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-9365 • E-ISSN: 1470-1197
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14649365.2014.929729
OpenAlexW1964104120
LanguageEN
Citations received37
References cited42

Changing working conditions at many universities over the past decade have meant longer hours, intensified record-keeping, and more precarious employment. Despite these changes, many academics still insist that we enjoy our jobs. Our inquiry is oriented toward spaces and practices that bring us joy in our daily work and help us withstand the negative effects of working in academia. This article reports on our exploration of some moments of joy at work as part of our own academic practice. Through a feminist methodology known and developed as collective biography, we wrote individual memories of joy in our teaching, publishing, and collaborating, together at a writing retreat. As we analyzed these recalled moments, we came to realize that joy emerges through a turbulent process fueled by a cocktail of emotions. In fact, we came to understand joy as affect, with affect seen as a certain sort of excess, generated around and through sensations that might contribute to feelings such as celebration, happiness, or surprise as well as fear, anger, or embarrassment. We conclude that joy does things, that it can be transformative, and that cultivating joy in academia is part of a radical praxis

Aesthetics · Affect (linguistics · Anger · Art · Biography · Embarrassment · Feeling · Happiness · Pedagogy · Political science · Praxis · Sociology · Surprise · Transformative learning · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Social Psychology