“I felt too involved in something that I didn’t know how to deal with”: navigating emotional labor as “immigrant” women in U.S. Academia

Abstract

Considering that women, people of color, and minoritized faculty are expected to provide disproportionate emotional labor, this study focuses on how “immigrant” women faculty navigate emotional labor in U.S. academia. Based on interviews with 28 “immigrant” women across nationality, race/ethnicity, rank, and discipline, this study examines how they navigate emotional labor particularly through the Trump administration and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Guided by a process of critical thematic analysis, we identify three overlapping themes: (a) conditional citizenship as emotional labor; (b) neoliberal multiculturalism, emotional labor, and gaslighting; and (c) material consequences of emotional labor. We argue the unwritten yet expected disproportionate emotional labor that “immigrant” women experience as gaslighted multicultural subjects reflects gendered and racialized xenophobia in U.S. academia, especially on the backs of women with non-immigrant visas, women of color, Muslim women, and women whose voices are always-already in question. We end with practical implications.

Keywords:

• International faculty
• gender
• academic work
• emotional labor

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yea-Wen Chen

Yea-Wen Chen is a Professor of Intercultural Communication and Director of Graduate Studies at the School of Communication, San Diego State University. She teaches several courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels including: intercultural communication, instructional communication, ethnography and communication, international studies capstone, and communicating differences that matter for social change. Her research and pedagogy center around communicating cultural identities from the margins to challenge white supremacy, sexism, and xenophobia.

Brandi Lawless

Brandi Lawless is a Professor at the Department of Communication Studies, University of San Francisco. She teaches several courses at the undergraduate level including: qualitative research methods, communication and education, communication for justice and social change, and intercultural communication. She studies critical approaches to pedagogy through a lens of intercultural communication, focusing on race, gender, class, and other identity intersections.