Abstract
The work experiences of faculty in higher education often entail being overworked and stressed, and this is particularly true for women faculty and faculty of color. This essay is situated at the intersection of gender, race, axiological, epistemological, and occupational identities. In this metatheoretical argument, we propose a new concept communicative labor by exploring how existing scholarly frameworks regarding workplace emotion, compassionate communication, and gendered work intersect to inform the experiences of critical women scholars and the ways their labor is communicatively manifested across research, teaching, and service. More specifically, we argue that communication itself (i.e., literally listening, speaking, and writing) becomes emotionally-laden work amid the research, teaching, and service performed by critical women scholars. We aim, through our articulation of communication labor, to disrupt dominant narratives of what faculty work lives should be, and we call for a paradigm shift in the way faculty labor is socially constructed so that we can improve critical women faculty’s success and well-being.
Recommended Citation
Gist-Mackey, Angela N.; Kunkel, Adrianne; and Guthrie, Jennifer A.
(2021)
"Surviving Communicative Labor: Theoretical Exploration of the (In)Visibility of Gendered Faculty Work/Life Struggle,"
Academic Labor: Research and Artistry: Vol. 5, Article 3.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/alra/vol5/iss1/3
Publication-Ready Author Bio
Angela N. Gist-Mackey (Ph.D., University of Missouri) is an Assistant Professor of organizational communication at the University of Kansas. Her research explores the relationship between communication, social mobility, and power in organizational contexts.
Adrianne Kunkel (Ph.D., Purdue University) is Professor of interpersonal communication at the University of Kansas. Her research explores emotional support/coping processes in personal relationships and support group settings, romantic relationship (re)definition processes, sex/gender similarities and differences, sexual harassment, and domestic violence intervention (both organizationally and interpersonally).
Jennifer A. Guthrie (Ph.D., University of Kansas) is an entrepreneur and former Associate Professor of Communication. Her entrepreneurship coaches relational partners in seeking authenticity and positive change while dismantling toxic relationships. Dr. Guthrie engages in practices of continual growth, collaboration, and self-reflexivity. Her research focuses on interpersonal relationships, how people cope during times of struggle, and use their strengths to obtain relational health and positive social change.