Kuttainen, Victoria (2025) Humanities Academics in Regional Australian Universities: Challenges and Insights at the Equity Coalface. Australian Humanities Review, 73. pp. 112-132.

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Abstract

Beginning in the pandemic and extending through the consultation period that informed the Australian Universities Accord, the Humanities in the Regions Community of Practice of the Australasian Consortium of Humanities Researchers and Centres (ACHRC) hosted a series of conversations with regional humanities academics that sought to capture concerns about rising inequality. What follows is a thematic analysis of follow-up interviews that drew on a story-capture method with nine academics from eight regional universities across Australia in 2024. Acknowledging F. Michael Connelly and D. Jean Clandinin’s insistence on the richness of narrative inquiry in education studies, these interviews attempt to draw strength from what Rita Felski has identified in narrative as its capacity to reveal ‘density and distinctiveness of particular life-worlds’ (51). This responds in part to Clifton Conrad’s plea to his fellow researchers of higher education to push beyond ‘data-gathering for narrow descriptive purposes’ (205) and utilitarian functions, to ask questions about what it means to be educated and to participate in the educating process. Our conversations uncovered the nuanced experiences of HASS academics—whose research is often focused on structural inequality— increasingly observing, experiencing, and attempting to mitigate widening inequalities in their own student cohorts and academic careers.

Item ID:	85321
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1325-8338
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Date Deposited:	02 May 2025 03:01
FoR Codes:	39 EDUCATION > 3903 Education systems > 390303 Higher education @ 50% 44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4407 Policy and administration > 440709 Public policy @ 50%
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