Crossing gender and postcolonial borders: Academic women on the move. A reflection on the experiences of Brazilian women in Portuguese academia

Wednesday, October 19^th 2016

1.00 – 2.30 pm

S2.84 (Social Sciences Building)

Free and open to all; no registration required

Speaker:

Dr. Thais França (CIES – Lisbon University Institute)

Abstract:

Academic mobility has been presented as a fundamental step in academic career development. Its benefits – transnational networking, knowledge circulation and increase of international publishing – have been largely acclaimed. However, it cannot be disregarded that this phenomenon occurs in a context of the advancement of neoliberal ideas in the academic context. Hence, it is fundamental to analyse the academic through a critical perspective that considers not only its advantages but also its hierarchies and power asymmetries. In order to investigate women’s experience in academic mobility schemes, reflecting on how gender differences shape it, it is important to denounce some of the discrimination and inequalities that are reproduced through academic mobility programs. To accept claims such as “academic women are less mobile than their male colleagues” without considering its causes and its impact on women’s career is to render invisible exclusion dynamics strongly present in academia. Indeed, the different variables and interests present in academic mobility processes demand a complex analysis that goes beyond a single perspective. It is necessary to take in consideration how the various markers of difference interact to shape subjects’ academic mobility experience. The case of Brazilian academics in Portuguese academia is a powerful illustration of how gender, race, nationality and geopolitical hierarchies bound together to legitimate stereotypes and exclusion dynamics.

Chair and Discussant:

Dr. Maria do Mar Pereira (Sociology)

Seminar organised by the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, in collaboration with AMIN: Academic Mobilities and Immobilities Network