Hope theory as resistance: narratives of South Asian scholars in Australian academia
Abstract
Purpose
Identity, positioning and possibilities intersect differently for South Asian women in white academia. Within a broader migrant community that defines Australian life, these identities and positioning imply great possibility, but pursuing such pathways within academia is a walk on the last strand of resilience. This paper explores this tension of possibilities and constraints, using hope theory to highlight the cognitive resistance evident in the narratives of three South Asian women in Australian academia.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use collaborative autoethnography to share their narratives of working in Australian universities at three different stages of careers, utilising Snyder's model of hope theory to interrogate their own goal-setting behaviours, pathways and agentic thinking.
Findings
The authors propose that hope as a cognitive state informs resistance and enables aspirations to contribute within academia in meaningful ways whilst navigating the terrain of inequitable structures.
Originality/value
The authors' use of hope theory as a lens on the intersectional experiences of career making, building and progression is a new contribution to scholarship on marginalised women in white academe and the ways in which the pathways of resistance are identified.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Since submission of this article the following author has updated their affiliation: Reshmi Lahiri-Roy is at The Institute of Education, Arts and Community, Federation University, Victoria, Australia.
Erratum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article, Sum, N., Lahiri-Roy, R. and Belford, N. (2023), “Hope theory as resistance: narratives of South Asian scholars in Australian academia”, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-03-2023-0085, failed to remove anonymised references at proof stage. References throughout to “author/s” have been amended to Lahiri-Roy et al., 2021, Lahiri-Roy and Martinussen, 2023, Rosunee-Belford, 2013 or Belford, 2020.
This error was introduced in the editorial process and has now been corrected in the online version. The publisher sincerely apologises for this error and for any inconvenience caused.
Citation
Sum, N., Lahiri-Roy, R. and Belford, N. (2023), "Hope theory as resistance: narratives of South Asian scholars in Australian academia", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-03-2023-0085
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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