A3 Book section, Chapters in research books
What If Academia Was Not a Gladiator Fight? Reflections on Trying to Change the Discourse From Competition to Community Building (2024)
Gibson, A. G., & Saarinen, T. (2024). What If Academia Was Not a Gladiator Fight? Reflections on Trying to Change the Discourse From Competition to Community Building. In M. Aarnikoivu, & A. T. Le (Eds.), Building Communities in Academia (pp. 141-154). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83797-500-620241010
JYU authors or editors
Publication details
All authors or editors: Gibson, Andrew G.; Saarinen, Taina
Parent publication: Building Communities in Academia
Parent publication editors: Aarnikoivu, Melina; Le, Ai Tam
ISBN: 978-1-83797-503-7
eISBN: 978-1-83797-500-6
Publication year: 2024
Publication date: 06/08/2024
Pages range: 141-154
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
Place of Publication: Leeds
Publication country: United Kingdom
Publication language: English
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83797-500-620241010
Publication open access: Not open
Publication channel open access:
Abstract
In this chapter, we unpack what we experienced during the process of facilitating a group of early career researchers, and how we feel an approach to ‘humanising academia’ may have helped at least us to envision higher education not in terms of the struggle it is often depicted as but as a community and a safe space. Setting out with a conscious naivety, either ignoring (Taina) or ignorant of (Andrew) the ways things ‘should be done’ in academia, allowed us to start a critically supportive community of researchers. This chapter explores how this approach allowed us to engage with different modes of being together and to reconsider existing forms of togetherness. This ‘being together’ was related not only to academic hierarchies and positions but also to thinking, feeling and experiencing. Using lenses from affect theory and queer studies, we discuss how, without quite meaning to, we developed an ‘affective community’ of those interested in discovering alternative ways to approach the international dimension of higher education. This shows how enacting ideals of community can bring us to build a community beyond hierarchies and competition.
Keywords: tertiary education; universities; communities (organisations); communality
Free keywords: academic hierarchies; alternative internationalisms; alternative ways of working; humanising academia; queer art of failure; slow academia
Contributing organizations
Ministry reporting: Yes
VIRTA submission year: 2024
Preliminary JUFO rating: 1
