The Emergence of Postfeminist Identities in Higher Education

Book excerpt: By drawing on qualitative research conducted in universities in Cyprus, this book presents an account of life in the academy from a feminist perspective. In doing so, the texts uncover new gendered identities emerging as a result of neoliberal and postfeminist discourses in Higher Education. Adopting a psychosocial lens, and drawing on theories of affect and performativity, this volume explains academics’ responses to growing levels of stress, anxiety, precarity and competition in their professional environment. Chapters offer rich observation of how academic staff and faculty negotiate aspects of femininity and masculinity within the academy, and so highlights the performance of ‘gendered academic subjectivities’ as a way in which academics deal with increasing pressures and anxiety. Ultimately proposing a typography of emergent, affective identities including industry academics, fossilised, family and wannabe academics, the volume yields important insights into the current workings of Higher Education and shows the personal and professional impacts of neoliberal dynamics. This volume will prove to be a useful resource for researchers and high-level scholars in the fields of education, sociology of education and gender studies. More generally, scholars and academics with an interest in the changing face of contemporary Higher Education will find this book informative.