“Assume You Don’t Belong”: A Mindset for Academic Survival

The Feminist Studies in Religion Forum Board convened scholars to discuss major shifts in higher education at the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature annual meetings in 2018. The theological and liberal arts academy is breaking down, and part-time teaching with low pay and without social securities is becoming the norm. There is a great need for mentoring, and we see that mentoring needs to be done in terms not of how to “make it” in the traditional academy but of how to navigate neoliberal exploitation and to survive at multiple career stages. The convened contributors, all of whose presentations were edited into this set of essays (with the exception of Kwok Pui-Lan’s), were asked to share their knowledge with feminist colleagues who are currently navigating different stages of work including dissertation writing, dealing with institutional (hetero) sexism and racism, preparing book proposals and/or job applications, interviewing for positions, considering alternative career paths, and so forth.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jfemistudreli.35.2.08

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