In English

At the same time as universities, navigating according to neoliberal goals, project a public image as corporate and agile top-tier institutions with top researchers, behind the façade, academic life is overshadowed by a narrative of misery. This dichotomy describing academic work and its conditions is the prevalent approach in the research literature. The existing portrayal fails to offer sustainable horizons and risks the meaningfulness of academic work and the continuity of science.

The research project Good News from Academia aims to diversify the dominant narratives of academic work as excellence-driven or shadowed by misery. Instead, the project addresses researchers’ experiences of ordinariness and meaningfulness of academic work. Through these experiences the study may open more sustainable horizons of academic work.

The research project progresses in several phases. First, the project’s researchers analyse their experiences of ordinary and meaningful academic work through collaborative autoethnography. The autoethnographic phase is followed by writing calls, interviews and workshops addressing a broader group of researchers. The project focuses on researchers from social sciences and humanities who have completed their doctoral training and work at universities in Finland.

Duration: 1 September 2024 – 31 August 2028