Fat pedagogy and microaggressions: Experiences of professionals working in higher education settings

ABSTRACT

Fisanick suggests that fat professors feel compelled to overperform, which is an argument that is applicable to all areas of higher education, even beyond the classroom. Directors, coordinators, and administrative assistants in academic departments and units also experience this strain in which overworking and taking on too many responsibilities can somehow overcompensate for the societal belief that someone larger is less credible or knowledgible than someone in a thinner body size. Using a narrative inquiry approach, the authors examine how participants experience microaggressions in a university workplace. The research concludes by highlighting how body weight should be integrated into diversity training and programming.

KEYWORDS:

• Body shaming
• fat stigma
• higher education
• intersectionality

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrea N. Hunt

Andrea N. Hunt is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of North Alabama with research and teaching specializations in diverse families, race and ethnicity, gender, social justice, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Tammy Rhodes

Tammy Rhodes is the Program Coordinator/Administrative Assistant in the University Success Center at the University of North Alabama and focuses on academic advising and retention of academically at-risk students specializing in first generation minority students.