Being a ‘good’ citizen: white collegiality and academic citizenship

UK Academics face multiple pressures that foster competition. These include, a failing funding model leading to universities cutting academic posts; increasing reliance on short-term, insecure contracts; career progression linked to securing research funding; increasingly nebulous metricisation such as requirements to deliver ‘impact’ through research; and, the emphasis of the Research Excellence Framework to publish 4* publications. Simultaneously, many universities promote a, collectively supportive ethos as a cornerstone of their identities often articulated within institutional policy as ‘collegiality’ or ‘citizenship’. This article explores how collegiality is valorised in terms of academic citizenship at a cost to academics of colour. It argues that ‘collegiality’ emerges as a performance related culture promoting the interests of established White groups. Drawing on 25 interviews with female academics of colour, and critical race theory, it outlines how collegiality perpetuates racisms which impact career progression and a sense of belonging for female academics of colour.