The Palgrave Handbook of Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education

Foreword\nPeeling Away Imposterism\nContents\nNotes on Contributors\nList of Figures\nList of Tables\n1 Situating Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education\n	Introduction\n	Why Does Imposterism Matter Now?\n	Re-thinking the Insides and Outsides of Academia\n	Structure of the Handbook\n	Part One: Academic Identities\n	Part Two: Imposing Institutions\n	Part Three: Putting Imposter Feelings to Work\n	Thoughts and Provocations\n	References\nPart I Academic Identities—Locating Academic Imposters\n2 Intersectional Imposter Syndrome: How Imposterism Affects Marginalised Groups\n	Introduction\n	Intersectionality and Imposter Phenomenon\n	Culture of Power\n	Foundation Entry\n	Imposter Syndrome in a Post-92 Foundation Entry Course\n	Student Perspectives on Foundation Entry\n	Conclusions and Recommendations\n	References\n3 ‘I Shouldn’t Be Here’: Academics’ Experiences of Embodied (Un)belonging, Gendered Competitiveness, and Inequalities in Precarious English Higher Education\n	Introduction\n	Method\n	Belonging\n	Theoretical Perspective: The ‘Hegemonic Academic’\n	Precarity, Insecurity, and Compliance: ‘They Can Kind of Yank My Chains and Just Do Whatever They Want’\n	Who Is University for?: ‘The People Who Seem to Be Surviving Best in This Institution Are White, Male, and Middle-Class’\n	Dress and Demeanour: ‘You’re Not Allowed to Care About Such Frivolities as Looking a Certain Way’\n	Self-Promotion, Performative Success, and Image: ‘If You can’t Sell Your Product, Which in This Case Is Yourself, Then No-One’s Going to Buy It’\n	Conclusion: ‘I’m an Imposter and I Shouldn’t Be Here’\n	References\n4 Impostor Phenomenon: Its Prevalence Among Academics and the Need for a Diverse and Inclusive Working Environment in British Higher Education\n	Introduction\n	Aims of the Study\n	Method\n		Procedure\n		Participants\n		Measures and Instruments\n	Results\n		The Prevalence of Imposter Phenomenon\n		Imposter Phenomenon and (Psychological) Wellbeing\n		Discussion\n		Conclusion\n	References\n5 A Stranger’s House\n	Bibliography\n6 Marginalising Imposterism: An Australian Case Study Proposing a Diversity of Tendencies that Frame Academic Identities and Archetypes\n	Introduction\n	Foregrounding\n	Clinging to Imposterism in Higher Education\n	Using Archetypes to Explore Imposter Tendencies in Public Higher Education\n	A Case Study\n	Reflection Author 1: Researching Inside the Academy from the Artist Archetype\n	Reflection Author 2: Hiding in Plain Sight.\n	Meet the Archetypes and Their Imposter Tendencies\n		The Trickster\n		The Shadow\n		The Hero: Beyond Hercules, the Scientist as Hero\n	Author 2: Archetype oscillations—The Hermit and the Star (20 August, 17 September 2019)\n	Concluding Remarks\n	References\n7 The Canary in the Coalmine: The Impact of Imposter Syndrome on Students’ Learning Experience at University\n	Background\n	Methods\n	Findings\n	Recognising Imposterism\n	The Impact of Imposterism on Inclusion and Participation\n	Emotion Strategies and Managing Feelings of Imposter Syndrome\n	Mental Health and Access to Support Services\n	Discussion\n	Conclusions\n	References\nPart II Academic Identities—Constructing and Contesting Imposter Subjectivities\n8 I Have not Always Been Who I Am Now: Using Doctoral Research to Understand and Overcome Feelings of Imposterism\n	Methodology—Auto/Biographical Research as a Means of Discovery\n	Class and Me\n	A Fragile Self\n	Entering the Academy\n	The PhD and Me—Setting Off\n	The PhD—A Mode of Reasoning\n	The PhD—Walking the Road\n	The PhD—Assuaging Feelings of Imposterism\n	References\n9 ‘Dual Exclusion’ and Constructing a ‘Bridging’ Space: Chinese PhD Students in New Zealand\n	Introduction\n	Participants, Data Collection, and Analysis\n	Findings\n		‘We Are Just the Passers-By’\n		‘I Don’t Fit in There Anymore’\n		‘I Am Wondering How Many Students Are Thinking About not Returning to China’\n		The Emergence of a ‘Bridging’ Cultural Habitus\n	Conclusion\n	References\n10 Rise with Your Class, not Out of Your Class: Auto-Ethnographic Reflections on Imposter Syndrome and Class Conflict in Higher Education\n	Introduction\n	Value, Shame, and Class Conflict\n	Working-Class Cleft Habitus in HE\n	Shameful Dislocation\n	Failed Assimilation\n	Resisting Middle-Class Culture\n	Conclusion: Rising with Your Class\n	References\n11 Skin in the Game: Imposter Syndrome and the Insider Sex Work Researcher\n	Introduction\n	Imposter Syndrome as a Transsexual Prostitute in the Ivory Tower\n	Conclusion\n	Bibliography\n12 Zombies, Ghosts and Lucky Survivors: Class Identities and Imposterism in Higher Education\n	Introduction\n	Imposterism and Higher Education\n	Zombies Stalking Higher Education\n	Lucky Survivors in Higher Education\n	Everyday Class Distinctions\n	The Ghosts and Academic Identities\n	Conclusion: Enduring Imposterism\n	References\nPart III Imposing Institutions—Imposters Across the Career Course\n13 Sprinting in Glass Slippers: Fairy Tales as Resistance to Imposter Syndrome in Academia\n	Introduction\n	Why a Fairy Tale?\n	Who We Are and How We Wrote\n	Fairy Tales: Ironic Consciousness, Impostorship and the Missing Backstory\n	After the Ball: Tenurella and the Fable of the Magic Wand\n		Part I: Norming the Impostor: A World Organized Around a Flawed Ideal\n		Part II: Reality-Testing-Ordeal\n		Part III: Impostor (Re)Tellings: Critical Realization and Transformative Action\n	Critical Consciousness: Transforming the Reductive Spaces of Magical Thinking\n	References\n14 Restorying Imposter Syndrome in the Early Career Stage: Reflections, Recognitions and Resistance\n	Introduction\n	Methodology\n	Imposter Syndrome in the Early Career\n	How Is Imposter Syndrome Produced?\n	Resisting Imposterdom\n	Conclusions\n	References\n15 Formalised Peer-Support for Early Career Researchers: Potential for Resistance and Genuine Exchanges\n	Introduction\n	The Marketisation of Higher Education and Its Impacts on Everyday Work and Success\n	Formalised Support for Early Career Researchers\n		Fit the Mould\n		Seek Collaboration, Solidarity and Resistance\n	Analysis of ECR Workshop Titles and Abstracts\n		How Are ECRs Positioned?\n		How Are ‘Experts’ Positioned?\n		What Does Success Look Like?\n	Vignette 1: ‘Surviving the PhD: Stories from the Other Side’\n	Vignette 2: ‘Data Analysis in Educational Research: Triumphs, Troubles and Dilemmas’\n	Discussion and Conclusions\n	References\n16 Getting Stuck, Writing Badly, and Other Curious Impressions: Doctoral Writing and Imposter Feelings\n	Introduction: Doctoral Writing and Imposter Syndrome\n	The Three Metaphors: Getting Stuck, Writing Badly, and Other Curious Impressions\n		The Press\n		The Compass\n		The Obstacle\n	The Imposter as Resource Cards and Concluding Remarks\n	Appendix: Link to Cards\n	References\n17 Surviving and Thriving: Doing a Doctorate as a Way of Healing Imposter Syndrome\n	Introduction\n	Methodology\n	Literature\n	Coercive Control\n	The Effects of Coercive Control\n	‘Becoming’ a Doctor\n	Findings and Discussion\n	Conclusion\n	Chapter Summary\n	References\n18 Feeling “Stupid”: Considering the Affective in Women Doctoral Students’ Experiences of Imposter ‘Syndrome’\n	Introduction\n	Gendered Doctorates: Women Doctoral Students as ‘Other’?\n	Differential Experiences of Imposter Syndrome\n	Findings\n	Imposterism Experienced as Inability to Feel Legitimate as a PhD Student\n	Imposter Syndrome Linked to Key Stages and Incidences During the Doctorate\n	Imposterism Felt as a Personal Failing\n	Conclusion\n	References\n19 Teaching as Imposter in Higher Education: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of Australian University Website Homepages\n	Introduction\n	Theoretical Framework\n	A Brief Genealogy of Teaching and Its Relationship to Research in Australian Higher Education\n	University Website Homepage Analysis\n		Method\n		Findings\n	Conclusion and Discussion\n	References\n20 The Sociologist’s Apprentice: An Islander Reflects on Their Academic Training\n	Introduction\n	A Relevant Qualification\n	Core Skills or Career Skills\n	Industry-Specific Training\n	Conclusion: Get a Trade, My Child\n	References\nPart IV Imposing Institutions—Belonging in the Neoliberal University\n21 ‘“Whose Shoes Are You in?” Negotiating Imposterism Inside Academia and in Feminist Spaces’\n	Introduction—or Why, and Who, Am I Here?\n	Methodologies\n	Contexts\n		#1 Spaces\n		#2 Disciplines\n		#3Theories-Politics\n	Conclusion\n	References\n22 ‘Praise of the Margins: Re-thinking Minority Practices in the Academic Milieu’\n	#A-Part\n	#Setting\n	#Solo\n	#Being Done with the Self-Imposed Strain of Self-Legitimisation: Striking from Dominant Discourse\n	#The Corpus of the Field/in the Field\n	#Incorporating Knowledge\n	#When the Margin Occupies/Rejoins the Centre\n	#Interstitial Spaces\n	#Zarra Bonheur: From the Individual to the Collective Body\n	Bibliography\n23 Working with/against Imposter Syndrome: Research Educators’ Reflections\n	Introduction: The Ubiquity of Imposter Feelings in Contemporary Universities\n	Literature Review: That ‘Phony Feeling’ Among Graduate Researcher and ECR Cohorts\n	Following Imposter Syndrome Around: An Account of Our Autoethnographic Inquiry\n	Working with Imposter Feelings: An Agenda for Researcher Developers\n		Contribute to Creating the Conditions for Belonging for All Researchers\n		Normalise the ‘hardness’ of Becoming a Researcher\n		Offer Opportunities for Researchers to Perform Their Researcher Selves\n		Create Collective Space to Talk About Imposter Feelings\n	Conclusion: Imposter Syndrome as an Unresolved Tension in Researcher Development Work\n	References\n24 Embodied Hauntings: A Collaborative Autoethnography Exploring How Continual Academic Reviews Increase the Experience and Consequences of Imposter Syndrome in the Neoliberal University\n	Scene One:\n	Scene Two:\n	Scene Three:\n	Setting the Scene for Laughter\n	References\n25 Performing Impact in Research: A Dramaturgical Reflection on Knowledge Brokers in Academia\n	Background\n		Knowledge Brokering: Opportunities and Challenges\n		An Institutional Knowledge Brokering Service: Introducing AskFuse\n	Applying a Dramaturgical Lens\n	Methods\n	Findings\n		Five Challenges of Knowledge Brokering Within an Institutional Rapid Response Service\n		Challenge 1: Complex and Lengthy Conversations—Risk of Being Exposed of an Imposter\n		Challenge 2: Limits to Collaboration: Failing at Your Job as Knowledge Broker\n		Challenge 3: Lack of Resources—Not Being Able to Do Your Job\n		Challenge 4: Organisational and Personal Change—Continuously Adapting Your Role\n		Challenge 5: Changing Evidence Bases—Increasing Transaction Costs for Boundary Workers\n	Discussion: A Bleak Picture for Institutional Brokering Services?\n		Managing Performances in Knowledge Brokering\n		Performing for Different Audiences\n		When Audience Segregation Fails\n		The Backstage Functions of AskFuse\n	Dealing with Change: ‘Deviant’ Roles\n	Conclusions\n		Limitations to a Dramaturgical Lens\n	References\n26 Being a Scarecrow in Oz: Neoliberalism, Higher Education and the dynamics of ‘Imposterism’\n	The Imposter Phenomenon\n	A Personal Account\n	Becoming Other\n	Background and Context\n	A Tainted Career\n	Feeling like a Fraud\n	Auditing Self-Worth\n	Not Measuring up\n	Imposterism as Alienation\n	The Value of Labour\n	Fear of Failure\n	Not the End\n	References\n27 Young Dean in a Tanzanian University: Transgressing Imposterism Through Dialogical Autoethnography\n	Introduction\n	The Neoliberal University and the Imposter Phenomenon in ECAs\n	Methodology\n	Emergent Themes from Autoethnographic Dialogue\n		On Becoming a Dean: Stuck with Labels\n		Ageism: Subtle Dehumanization\n		The Phenomenon of Trust\n		On Doing Deanship: Anxiety and Self-Doubt\n	Misiaszek’s Letter: Disrupting Disruptions in Autoethnographic Narrative\n	Conclusion\n	References\nPart V Putting Imposter Feelings to Work—Imposter Agency\n28 It’s NOT Luck: Mature-Aged Female Students Negotiating Misogyny and the ‘imposter Syndrome’ in Higher Education\n	Introduction\n	Empirical Approach: Experiences Shared\n	Applying ‘imposter Syndrome’ to Student-Parents in Higher Education\n	Uncomfortable Disruptions: Familial Care a Gendered Performativity\n	Misogyny: Negotiating Familial Tension for Student-Parents.\n	The Case Study: Tears in the academic’s Office\n	Academic Responses to Office Tears\n	In Closing\n	References\n29 1001 Small Victories: Deaf Academics and Imposter Syndrome\n	Introduction\n	How Did We Get Here?\n	Do We Belong in the Academy?\n	The Hidden and Visible Costs of Access and Deafness in the Academy\n	Critical Corridor Talk and Managing Interpreters\n	A Shaky Path to Tenure\n	1001 Small Victories\n	Citations\n30 UnBecoming of Academia: Reflexively Resisting Imposterism Through Poetic Praxis as Black Women in UK Higher Education Institutions\n	Introduction\n	Self-Doubt or Structural Oppression? Black Women in the [White] Academy\n	Methodology\n		Writing Poetry as a Black Feminist Method and Reflexive Knowing\n	A Space for Solidarity\n	Crafting Boundary Work\n	Co-Creative Reflexivity as Resistance\n	Conclusion\n	References\n31 The Perfect Imposter Storm: From Knowing Something to Knowing Nothing\n	Introduction\n	An Critical Autobiographical Self-Study\n	Practitioner to Scholar\n	Higher Education as a Field of Scholarship in Canada\n	Being a Woman—Reason Enough for the Imposter Syndrome?\n	The Perfect Imposter Storm\n	Lessons Learned\n	References\nPart VI Putting Imposter Feelings to Work—Ambivalence and Academic Activism\n32 Shaking off the Imposter Syndrome: Our Place in the Resistance\n	Introduction\n	Contextualising Imposterism in Australian Higher Education\n	Performing Our Way Through: Imposters Become Doctors\n	Challenging the ‘Ideal Academic’ Narrative\n	‘Feel Good Moments’ and Paying It Forward\n	References\n33 Putting the Imp into Imposter Syndrome\n	Self-Help Checklist:\n	Works Cited\n34 The Flawed Fairy-tale: A Feminist Narrative Account of the Challenges and Opportunities That Result from the Imposter Syndrome\n	Introduction\n	Prologue\n	Narrative One: The Obvious Imposter\n	Narrative Two: The ‘Imposing’ Imposter\n	Narrative Three: The ‘Insider’s’ Imposter\n	Conclusion\n	References\n35 Becoming and Unbecoming an Academic: A Performative Autoethnography of Struggles Against Imposter Syndrome and Masculinist Culture from Early to Mid-Career in the Neoliberal University\n	Introduction\n	The Neoliberal Academy and the Quest for Excellence\n	A Performative Autoethnography of Imposter Syndrome in the ‘MANagerial University’\n	Collegiality: Gendered Subjectivities and the ‘good Academic’\n	2005. An Introduction to (Teaching) Sociology\n	Performing a ‘Professional Development Review’ (PDR): Proving One’s Worth in the Academy\n	2018. Job Interview and a Chair\n	Discussion and Conclusion: Echoes of Imposter Syndrome\n	References\n36 Haunting Imposterism\n	Introduction\n	Theorying/Queerying Imposterism\n	Imposturing in the UK Academy: Cast(e)ing Shadows of Privilege and Marginality\n	Playing It Straight? The Awkwardness of a Queer (Un)Belonging in the Academy\n	Conclusion\n	References\n37 Imposter Agony Aunts: Ambivalent Feminist Advice\n	Introduction\n	The Collegial Feminist\n	The Anti-hero\n	The Precarity Hangover\n	The Over-Promoted Professor\n	By Way of Conclusion…\n	References\nIndex