Academic trajectories refer to the course of research careers, but also of certain concepts or research subjects. They consist of different positions that are attributed or occupied over time and space, take place within a wider framework of symbolic and institutional positions, and within the structured field of higher education. What are possible determinants or characteristics of academic trajectories? How do they result from everyday positioning or classification practices, and how do they intertwine with the structured contexts of academic disciplines or higher education systems?
The workshop aims at bringing together researchers with a common interest in these and similar questions. It zooms in on symbolic positions and positioning in academia, on research careers and biographies, and on the higher education contexts these aspects are embedded in. Against the background of academia being increasingly internationalised, the exchange of European and American perspectives is of special interest.
The workshop it is open to all kinds of theoretical, methodological and empirical approaches, tackling topics as diverse as
- Professional careers and biographies in higher education, and their interplay with institutional and symbolic structures of disciplines and/or higher education
- Socio-structural variables like social status, gender or race and their (intersectional) influence on research careers
- The conjunctures of concepts and research subjects, their domination or mobilization by various academic or political players
- The social construction of concepts like excellence, quality or social impact
- Comparative perspectives on the social structure of higher education
- Critical modes of knowledge production and reflexivity
Contributions may deal with these exemplary questions, but are welcome to focus on other aspects of the topic at hand as well.