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Developing Academic Identities as Gay Male Lecturers at South African Universities: Two Autoethnographic Narratives
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Developing Academic Identities as Gay Male Lecturers at South African Universities: Two Autoethnographic Narratives

Grant Andrews and Henry Nichols
Alternation (Durban), Vol.28(2), pp.38-64
01/12/2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29086/2519-5476/2021/v28n2a3

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Abstract

academic identities queer studies gay academics South African LGBTQ rights higher education autoethnography
Despite South Africa’s progressive and inclusive queer rights legislation, attitudes in the country are still markedly hostile to queer people, who suffer widespread discrimination, violence, exclusion, and stigma. Many researchers have explored the experiences and attitudes of queer people in educational settings in South Africa. However, research on the academic identities of those from gender and sexual minority groups is still rare. This article explores the academic identities of the two authors, who are both gay men working at South African universities. The main research question was: how are the academic identities of the two participating gay male lecturers developed in relation to educational and professional experiences? While we are both in our mid-30s and have thus lived through the South African transition into democracy, we are from different racial and cultural backgrounds and work in different contexts. We use autoethnographic methods to generate data for this study, through: 1) a semi-structured online discussion between the two authors, and 2) personal narrative reflections. Queer theory and theories of masculinities were employed to frame our analysis. We performed a thematic analysis of the data to identify significant convergences and divergences in how our academic identities have developed as gay lecturers. Our findings indicate that early educational experiences of silence on topics of gender and sexuality, supportive queer mentors and peers, and a concern for social justice were significant factors in developing our academic identities

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