Staging Women’s Lives in Academia: Gendered Life Stages in Language and Literature Workplaces

Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 12
Introduction......Page 14
Graduate School......Page 19
Early Career (Including Tenure)......Page 20
Midcareer (Including Post-Tenure)......Page 22
Late Career and Retirement......Page 25
Works Cited......Page 28
Part I. Graduate School
......Page 30
Chapter 1. A Job That Gets Old Fast: Age Studies, Academic Labor Criticism, and the Graduate Employee
......Page 32
Notes......Page 41
Works Cited......Page 42
“Chilly Climate”: An Introduction......Page 44
“The Lady with the Grey”......Page 46
Contexts: Family and Field......Page 48
Online: “On a Plowed Road”......Page 49
“Even Women Themselves”......Page 51
Conclusion......Page 53
Notes......Page 54
Works Cited......Page 55
Chapter 3. The Accidental Academic, or How to Succeed in Academia through Failure and Doubt
......Page 58
Notes......Page 67
Work Cited......Page 68
Chapter 4. Uses of My Anger: Negotiating Mothering, Feminism, and Graduate School
......Page 70
Feminist Praxis as a Mother......Page 72
Feminist Praxis as a Graduate Student......Page 74
Notes......Page 78
Works Cited......Page 79
Chapter 5. The Chaos of Kairos: Conflicting Discourses of Timing, Mothering, and Flexibility
......Page 82
Myths of Flexibility......Page 87
Will Work for Change: Reflecting on Collective Public Acts......Page 90
Writing about Flexibility from Inside the Elastic Model......Page 92
Works Cited......Page 93
Part II. Early Career (Including Pre-Tenure)
......Page 96
Chapter 6. Working-Class Women on the Tenure Track
......Page 98
Notes......Page 107
Works Cited......Page 108
Chapter 7. My Double Life in Academia, or Extreme Parenting on the Tenure Track
......Page 112
Works Cited......Page 123
Chapter 8. Solo on Stage: The Single Mother’s Solitary Path to Tenure
......Page 126
The Hurdles of the Single Pre-Tenure Mother......Page 127
The Financial Impact of Not Having a Spouse Pre-Tenure......Page 131
The Social Stigma and the Isolation of the Pre-Tenure Single Mother......Page 134
The Stress of Pre-Tenure Single Parents......Page 136
Works Cited......Page 137
Chapter 9. Square Peg, Round Hole: My Journey toward Professor of Practice
......Page 140
Works Cited......Page 150
Chapter 10. Currency
......Page 152
Works Cited......Page 163
Chapter 11. Settling Down without Settling: Reflecting on Ambition, Agency, and Acquiescence
......Page 164
Socialization: Becoming the Girl I Was Supposed to Be......Page 167
His and Hers: Challenges for Dual-Career Couples......Page 171
Understanding the Past, Determining the Future......Page 174
Works Cited......Page 175
Part III. Midcareer (Including Post-Tenure)
......Page 176
Chapter 12. Lives Like Mine: Notes at Midlife on Career Change
......Page 178
Works Cited......Page 188
Chapter 13. The Good Enough Academic Mother at Midcareer
......Page 190
Works Cited......Page 201
You Can Take the Girl Out of Brooklyn . . .......Page 204
Spinsters in the Tower: On Marital Status, Gender, and Age in Academe......Page 207
Location, Location . . .......Page 210
Shalom, Y’all......Page 213
Notes......Page 214
Works Cited......Page 215
Chapter 15: (In)Visibilities: A Woman Faculty of Color’s Search for a Disabled Identity That Fits
......Page 218
Notes......Page 228
Works Cited......Page 229
From Smoke Stacks to Ivory Towers......Page 232
The Numbers Tell a Story......Page 233
The Other......Page 235
Can You Hear Me Now?......Page 236
C-A-R-E Is a Four-letter Word......Page 237
The Unofficial Playbook for English Composition
Instructors......Page 238
The Complexities of Choice......Page 239
Blue Collar: Not the Dress Code......Page 240
Onward and Upward!......Page 241
Works Cited......Page 244
Chapter 17. Staging Women’s Lives on the “Altac” Track
......Page 248
Bickford’s Story......Page 249
Bethman’s Story......Page 250
The Challenges of Altac......Page 251
Best Practices and Recommendations......Page 255
Notes......Page 257
Works Cited......Page 259
Chapter 18. Gratitude, Agency, and the Reformation of the Stage Approach
......Page 262
Attitude of Gratitude......Page 266
Assertions of Agency......Page 269
Gratitude for Agency......Page 271
Notes......Page 272
Works Cited......Page 273
Part IV. Late Career and Retirement
......Page 274
Chapter 19: The Academic Slow Lane
......Page 276
Slow Academia......Page 278
The Academic Fast Lane......Page 282
Slow Feminism......Page 285
Notes......Page 286
Works Cited......Page 287
Chapter 20: Relentless Improvising: A Full Professor Struggles to Manage Work, Family, and Health
......Page 290
A Classical Liberal Arts Education......Page 291
Graduate School Fellowship......Page 293
Finding a Job......Page 294
Complexities of Family, Household, and Health......Page 296
Environmental Challenges......Page 299
Works Cited......Page 302
Chapter 21: An Academic Evolution: From Chicanita to Mamá to Abuela
......Page 304
Works Cited......Page 314
Chapter 22: Love’s Labors: Taking Care of Mother
......Page 316
Works Cited......Page 325
A View of Her Own......Page 326
To Live Deliberately......Page 327
Agency......Page 328
Alternative Models of Aging......Page 331
No Regrets......Page 333
Fourteen Things to Do Before You Retire......Page 334
Works Cited......Page 337
1......Page 340
2......Page 345
3......Page 346
4......Page 348
Works Cited......Page 350
Chapter 25: Retirement in Two Voices
......Page 352
Works Cited......Page 363
Contributors......Page 366
Index......Page 376