Beyond the academic imposter syndrome: A feminist relational discourse analysis of accounts of (un)belonging from UK working-class women academics

Abstract

ABSTRACT Previous research utilised discourse analysis to explore institutional ideal worker discourse to find that it shapes (un)belonging and shores up an unequal and stratified academy via intersecting classed and gendered discourse. This paper develops this work by utilising Feminist Relational Discourse Analysis (FRDA) on interview data from 12, one-to-one semi-structured interviews with working-class women academics employed in UK Higher Education institutions. This analysis, first, identified a dominant discourse; ‘being a fish out of water’ that drew on a contemporary iteration of the ‘psy complex’ construction of the ‘imposter syndrome’ to obscure systems of power underpinned by gendered and classed portrayals of who embodies the ideal academic. Second, the analysis produced I Poems which uncovered hidden accounts of how this dominant discourse silences via a coupling with sufficient/deficient academic discourse to individualise – and make private – shameful and painful emotional experiences of unbelonging. Conversely, simultaneously voiced accounts attempted to resist and rally against individualised deficient constructions. This study evidences the utility of FRDA to uncover the unheard and silenced voiced accounts that are intimately connected to discursive systems of gendered and classed power, while illuminating counter-narratives that challenge individualised discourse of inequalities to claim rightful citizenship in the UK Academy.