Narrating the (dis)comfort and multiplicities of becoming faculty

ABSTRACT

In the broader context of higher education, queer and gay faculty are increasingly visible, yet they are also relatively quiet regarding the assemblages of their identity on the processes of becoming faculty. In authoring our assemblages of coming to be Afrikaner and white and queer and gay as well as faculty, we attempt to narrate our multiplicities as polyphonic in the context of the South African and African higher education. We use new materialism as heuristic lense to voice/perform the complexities of our (dis)comfort, our complicities, and lived liminality as faculty. As such, in our narratives and responses to each other’s narratives, we not only account for the cumulative force of the materiality of historical and social events and discourses on our identities and practices of self but also accept the (im)possibility of finding equilibrium.

KEYWORDS:

• Afrikaner
• faculty
• gay
• gender
• higher education
• identity
• new materialism
• queer
• whiteness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

J. E. Maritz

J. E. Maritz is a Full Professor in the Department of Health Studies at the University of South Africa and a Professor Extraordinary at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. She is a C rated researcher. Jeanette explores scholarship and professional development from the margins for both faculty and students through different lenses and geographical contexts.

P. Prinsloo

P. Prinsloo is a Research Professor in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in the Department of Business Management, in the College of Economic and Management Sciences, University of South Africa (Unisa) and a B3 rated researcher. Since 2015, he is also a Visiting Professor at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany, and in 2019 became a Fellow of the European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN). His current research focuses on the collection, analysis and use of student data in learning analytics, graduate supervision, and digital identity. He blogs at https://opendistanceteachingandlearning.wordpress.com/ and his Twitter alias is @14prinsp