Inconvenient academic workers? Collective (Re)humanisation through the dialogue of a Freirean Reading Circle

We argue that academia's performative obsession is inherently dehumanising. We seek to rehumanise academia by sharing a method for collective research and writing. Through a fresh approach to Freirean Reading Circles (FRCs), we offer a series of images and conversations from our circle meetings to demonstrate aspects of humanity often erased in traditional academic writing. Although FRCs can be adapted to different cultural artefacts, our choice of the Japanese novel Convenience Store Woman is purposeful. We explore the novel's theme of what it means to be both human and worker, and challenge the patriarchal bias of ‘great’ literature. Grounded in Paulo Freire's ideas, we demonstrate how academia's dehumanising tendencies can be challenged from within. To humanise our writing, we celebrate the joy and messiness of collective processes, foregrounding the human selves often hidden in sanitised academic writing. We invite you, as readers, to resist dehumanisation by extending our emancipatory project.