Being chimaera: a monstrous identity for SoTL academics

Lurking on the fringes of university culture are academic identities that do not fit into the usual disciplinary communities. Aiming to explore the experience of ‘being academic’ when not linked directly to a discipline, this paper examines the stories of a diverse group of SoTL scholars who work in...

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Main Authors: Bennett, Rebecca, Hobson, Julia, Jones, Angela, Martin-Lynch, Pamela, Scutt, Cecily, Strehlow, Karin, Veitch, Sarah
Format: Journal Article
Published: Taylor & Francis 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/77773
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author Bennett, Rebecca
Hobson, Julia
Jones, Angela
Martin-Lynch, Pamela
Scutt, Cecily
Strehlow, Karin
Veitch, Sarah
author_facet Bennett, Rebecca
Hobson, Julia
Jones, Angela
Martin-Lynch, Pamela
Scutt, Cecily
Strehlow, Karin
Veitch, Sarah
author_sort Bennett, Rebecca
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Lurking on the fringes of university culture are academic identities that do not fit into the usual disciplinary communities. Aiming to explore the experience of ‘being academic’ when not linked directly to a discipline, this paper examines the stories of a diverse group of SoTL scholars who work in a centralised multi-campus academic skills support centre in an Australian university. Framed as group auto-ethnography, the paper inquires into the everyday experience of these academics through narrative analysis of multiple first-person accounts and makes apparent the monstrousness of de-affiliated academic identities. Despite diverse disciplinary backgrounds, the author-participants found that they now shared a tripartite academic identity formed through the negotiation of three roles: the teacher, the disciplinarian, and the educational researcher. Using the chimaera, a mythical three-headed monster as an organising metaphor, this paper aims to provide agency and visibility for often under-represented and unacknowledged academic identities.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-777732020-04-24T01:34:30Z Being chimaera: a monstrous identity for SoTL academics Bennett, Rebecca Hobson, Julia Jones, Angela Martin-Lynch, Pamela Scutt, Cecily Strehlow, Karin Veitch, Sarah Lurking on the fringes of university culture are academic identities that do not fit into the usual disciplinary communities. Aiming to explore the experience of ‘being academic’ when not linked directly to a discipline, this paper examines the stories of a diverse group of SoTL scholars who work in a centralised multi-campus academic skills support centre in an Australian university. Framed as group auto-ethnography, the paper inquires into the everyday experience of these academics through narrative analysis of multiple first-person accounts and makes apparent the monstrousness of de-affiliated academic identities. Despite diverse disciplinary backgrounds, the author-participants found that they now shared a tripartite academic identity formed through the negotiation of three roles: the teacher, the disciplinarian, and the educational researcher. Using the chimaera, a mythical three-headed monster as an organising metaphor, this paper aims to provide agency and visibility for often under-represented and unacknowledged academic identities. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/77773 10.1080/07294360.2015.1087473 Taylor & Francis restricted
spellingShingle Bennett, Rebecca
Hobson, Julia
Jones, Angela
Martin-Lynch, Pamela
Scutt, Cecily
Strehlow, Karin
Veitch, Sarah
Being chimaera: a monstrous identity for SoTL academics
title Being chimaera: a monstrous identity for SoTL academics
title_full Being chimaera: a monstrous identity for SoTL academics
title_fullStr Being chimaera: a monstrous identity for SoTL academics
title_full_unstemmed Being chimaera: a monstrous identity for SoTL academics
title_short Being chimaera: a monstrous identity for SoTL academics
title_sort being chimaera: a monstrous identity for sotl academics
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/77773