Voices in academia and beyond : an exploration of European researchers' narratives using a decolonising lens

Abstract

Grounded in the well-known feminist slogan coined by Carol Hanisch in 1970, “the personal is political,” and informed by the postcolonial decolonising perspective, this article underlines the significance of foregrounding authentic lived experiences, challenging purportedly ‘neutral’ and ‘objectivist’ positivist assumptions. Featuring strong representation of women researchers and individuals of minority backgrounds among our respondents, both within and beyond academia, the article’s discussion is informed by a qualitative autobiographical comparative inquiry that deploys the intersectional perspective. The study (i) profiled ‘Early Career Researchers’ (ECRs) to demystify ‘public-private divide’ conventions, while critically questioning the ECR category’s definition; and (ii) queried disparities and resistances at play with respect to (de)colonising higher education, research, and innovation (HERI) contexts. The findings include narrative insights from 36 participants of the COST Action CA20137 Making Young Researchers’ Voices Heard for Gender Equality (VOICES) network, which includes 480 members, based across Europe. Findings resulting from the thematic analysis of semi-structured interview data critically chronicle (i) the heterogeneity in terms of researchers’ institutionalised categorisations, and (ii) salient intersections such as age range, gender, nationality, country of residence, race, ethnic background, religion, sexual orientation, and socio-economic group. The discussion critically complements existing monitoring and evaluative knowledge-bases (particularly quantitative), with a nuanced discernment of personal experiences; it thus provides valuable insights into the precarious (in)visibility(/-ies) of ECRs that connect the personal, public, and political realms. The discussion concludes with recommendations for monitoring and evaluation policies and practices to foster the mitigation of disparities, invisibilities, and under- and misrepresentations of ECRs.