Splitting the Academy: The Emotions of Intersectionality at Work

Abstract

Using labor market theory, we assess how we have constructed the teaching of required courses on diversity, with the potential splitting of the academy into distinctive labor markets. In-depth interviews with instructors of color and nonminorities who teach required diversity-education courses at a predominately white university are qualitatively assessed and describe the differences in the emotional labor attached to this segmented academic market. We identify specific dimensions of diversity teaching that attach to the job conditions of secondary labor markets, including the distortion of work loads and evidence of differential barriers in the emotional labor attached. These labor market conditions may structurally limit opportunities for career survival and advancement of minority and female instructors.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Julia McQuillan and Sheryl Grana for their thoughtful comments on an earlier draft, Grant Tietjen for his manuscript assistance, and three anonymous reviewers from The Sociological Quarterly. Our greatest debt and gratitude to our colleagues who participated in this research. Research support was provided by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Sociology Graduate Student Research Award. This address was originally presented at the Midwest Sociological Society annual conference in St. Louis, Missouri, on March 28, 2008.

NOTE

Notes

¹ Sixteen of the original instructors were unavailable for interviews because of retirement, lack of faculty retention, two deaths or loss of contact information after graduating from or leaving their doctoral program.