James Burford

Queerying the affective politics of doctoral education: toward complex visions of agency and affect

Higher education (HE) researchers, like their colleagues across the humanities and social sciences, are increasingly tuning in to the political possibilities offered by working with emotion and affect. Reading across this work, it would seem that certain practices, and their associated affects, have achieved an aura of legitimacy, and political recognisability, while others tend to be regarded with suspicion. This article seeks to interrogate the current conceptual framing of affective agency within HE research, and to advance possibilities for viewing it otherwise. It draws upon queer theoretical work, taking Jagoses consideration of complex agency as a platform for an alternative framing. By examining an empirical case of the anxious practices of a doctoral writer, this article illuminates some cracks in assumptions made about what affective agency looks and feels like. As well as opening up discussion about the complexity of affective politics, this article illustrates the benefit of a queer methodology beyond the realms of sex, sexuality and gender in HE research.

Evaluating a gender diversity workshop to promote positive learning environments

ABSTRACT Drawing on data from an Aotearoa/New Zealand study of more than 230 secondary students, this article evaluates the potential of a 60-min gender diversity workshop to address bullying and promote positive environments for learning. Students completed pre- and postworkshop questionnaires. The authors used descriptive statistics to summarize results and conducted t-tests to assess the statistical significance of changes from before the workshop to immediately after the workshop. The authors used thematic analysis to analyze open-ended questionnaire responses. In summary, 237 students (M age = 13.7 years) attending 10 workshops participated in the study. More than 80% of students thought the gender diversity workshop would reduce bullying in schools, and 94% of participants reported that they would recommend the workshop to other young people. There was a significant increase in valuing (p < .001) and understanding (p < .001) gender-diverse people before and after the workshop. School cultures were largely perceived to be hard for gender-diverse students; however, many respondents reported a desire to be supportive of their gender-diverse peers. Reducing bullying related to gender identity and expression is very likely to have a positive effect on the mental health and educational achievement of young people. Brief diversity workshops, as a part of a wider suite of educational reforms, have the potential to create safer environments for learning.

Not Writing, and Giving "Zero-F**ks" about It: Queer(y)ing Doctoral "Failure".

ABSTRACT This article proposes that a queer reading of failure might offer opportunities to re-think the affective-political practice of doctoral writing. It examines data from one case in Aotearoa New Zealand to illustrate how a doctoral student negotiates ‘failure’ in relation to their writing practice and identity. While higher education researchers have tended to interpret failure as something to avoid, or learn from in the pursuit of normative success, queer research offers us new pathways into analysis. In this article, I argue that we can recognize ‘writing failures’ as possible modes of being and becoming doctoral. Despite being frequently associated with affective practices of guilt, shame, and disappointment, failure might also open onto alternative feelings such as relief, joy, and satisfaction. Ultimately, the article contends that queer concepts might assist higher education researchers to interrogate normative framings of failure, and to glimpse alternative possibilities for understanding ‘success’.

Educating for diversity: an evaluation of a sexuality diversity workshop to address secondary school bullying

Objective: To evaluate the potential of a 60-minute sexuality diversity workshop to address bullying in secondary schools. Methods: Students completed pre- and post-workshop questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise results with pre- to immediate post-workshop changes compared using t-tests. Thematic analysis was used to analyse open-ended questionnaire responses. Results: We had 229 students (mean age 13.7 years) attending 10 workshops participate in the study. Three-quarters of students thought the workshop would reduce bullying in schools, and over 95% of the participants thought that other secondary schools should offer the workshop. There was a significant increase in valuing (p < 0.001) and understanding (p < 0.001) sexuality-diverse individuals (e.g. lesbian, gay and bisexual people), between the pre- and post-workshop results. School climates were largely perceived to be ‘hard’ and included ‘bullying/mocking’ of sexuality-diverse students; however, many individual students reported a desire to be supportive of their sexuality-diverse peers. Conclusions: Sexuality-based bullying is commonplace in secondary schools. This form of bullying is associated with depression and suicide attempts. Reducing sexuality-based bullying is very likely to have a positive impact on the mental health of young people. Brief workshops, as a part of a wider suite of interventions, have some potential to create safer school environments.

Queer Inroads: Two Queer Higher Education Symposia Reviews Written Otherwise.

This is a review of two recent gatherings where queer theory and Higher Education (HE) Studies have met: the Queerly theorising higher education and academia: Interdisciplinary conversations symposium held at the University College London (UCL) Institute of Education (IOE) (London, UK), 8 December 2014, and the Queering higher education symposium held at the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Conference in Newport (Wales, UK), 10–12 December 2014. At the same time as reviewing these two events, this paper responds to the question: how might the genre of the conference review itself be queered?

Enlarging conference learning : at the crossroads of fat studies and conference pedagogies

ABSTRACT This article stages an encounter between the field of fat studies and conference pedagogy scholarship. After laying the foundations for a reading of academic conferences as learning spaces, the authors present two examples—International Fat Studies Conferences held in Aotearoa, New Zealand, in 2012 and 2016—to unpack these ideas. The framing of fat studies conferences as pedagogical spaces sparks questions that travel in multiple directions. It calls us to consider possible modifications to the design of fat studies conferences, as well as how discussions about fat pedagogy may have a wider application to academic gatherings.

Animating southern theory in the context of Thai higher education: a response from Thailand

What follows is a dialogue between two higher education researchers who live and work in Thailand. Adisorn Juntrasook (AJ) is a Thai academic who has worked and studied in Thailand and overseas, both in ‘rich peripheral’ nations like South Africa and Aotearoa New Zealand (where he received his PhD), as well as the Global Metropole (Switzerland, where he undertook postgraduate study). James Burford (JB) is an academic who calls Aotearoa New Zealand home. He has undertaken his university studies in Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as language study in both Taiwan and Thailand. James initially came to Thailand as a part of his Master’s field research in 2009. He subsequently returned and has spent the past three years working in Thai higher education institutions. Both James and Adisorn have contributed to the creation of a new faculty of Learning Sciences and Education at Thammasat University in Thailand.

Doctoral Induction Day

The words above are a patchwork of text I selected from Gill’s (2010) book chapter on the ‘hidden injuries’ of the neoliberal university. Do these feelings characterize contemporary academic work and life? Across critical higher education (HE) research it would seem the answer to this question is an increasingly emphatic ‘yes’.

Tracing the Connections Between Sustainable Development, Bullying, and Cyberbullying: The Case of Thailand

Bullying, including cyberbullying, is a serious impediment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Bullying has documented impacts on educational access and mental health, with victims at greater risk of depression and suicidality in particular. In this chapter, we argue that multiple SDGs, SDG targets and indicators are related to bullying, although the word itself is not explicitly used in any SDGs, SDG targets or indicators. Focusing on data from a middle-income country, Thailand, we explain how bullying impedes the achievement of some SDGs, and how the successful achievement of other SDGs could reduce bullying-related harm. By examining the case of Thailand, we facilitate a close-up account of the ways in which bullying and cyberbullying can be examined via the SDG lens. The key contribution this chapter makes is its linkage of the SDGs, bullying, and the possible contribution that developmental scientists can make to this area of global concern.

The trouble with doctoral aspiration now

Abstract This article attends to the affective-political dimensions of doctoral aspiration. It considers why doctoral students continue to hope for an ‘academic good life’ in spite of the depressed and precarious features of the academic present. The article emerges from 2013 research with ten doctoral students in the Arts and Social Sciences, at a research-intensive university in Aotearoa New Zealand, and accomplishes two primary objectives. Firstly, it contributes to scholarship that considers how visual methodologies might inform accounts of contemporary doctoral education. And secondly, it extends queer theorizing of affect in higher education studies, with the goal of understanding how doctoral aspiration might be reimagined through an engagement with Lauren Berlant’s ‘Cruel Optimism’ (2011). I propose that Berlant’s analytic framework helps to explain why students retain attachments to even problematic objects, like PhDs. I conclude the article by tarrying with the question of what to do about doctoral aspiration now.