Julie Shayne, GWSS faculty coordinator, blogs about emotional labor in academe

Julie Shayne, GWSS faculty coordinator, blogs about emotional labor in academe.

Julie Shayne wrote her second blog piece for Conditionally Accepted about the invisible emotional labor many faculty take on in their capacity as professors and mentors. In it she argues that much of this labor is required because institutions are not adequately meeting the needs of their marginalized students and as a result faculty – typically women, faculty of color, and otherwise minoritized themselves – end up filling the vacuum. In the piece, she was asked to discuss the types of labor performed and offer suggestions on how to make it institutionally recognized and valued. With permission, Shayne drew on examples from IAS faculty, Lauren Lichty, Mira Shimabukuro, and Janelle Silva and NHS faculty and GWSS affiliate Victoria A. Breckwich Vásquez. This is Shayne’s fourth academic blog post. Previously she wrote about the joy of mentoring undergraduate students on research, the freedom to do activist scholarship once switching to the lecturer track, and leaving the tenure track in order to prioritize quality of life over traditional career advancement.