Who do they think they are? The changing identities of professional administrators and managers in UK higher education

Contemporary universities, serving mass higher education markets, find themselves delivering complex, broadly based projects such as student support and welfare, human resource development, and business enterprise. Established concepts of academic administration and devolved management have been overlaid by more fluid institutional structures and cultures, with a softening of internal and external boundaries (Whitchurch 2004; 2005). These developments have caused major shifts in the identities of professional administrators and managers, as they adopt more projectoriented roles crossing functional and organisational boundaries. This paper considers the dynamics of these changes, in terms that move beyond conventional assumptions about ‘administration’ and ‘management’. While identities have been defined traditionally via structured domains such as professional knowledges, institutional boundaries, and the policy requirements of the higher education sector, an emergent ‘project’ domain has fostered the development of an increasingly multi-professional grouping of staff, with implications for career futures

Breastfeeding as a Mechanism to Reduce Postpartum Depression with Weight as a Major Contributing Factor in Hispanic Women

Postpartum Depression (PPD) is the most common childbearing-related illness around the globe affecting both mothers and their children; yet minimal longitudinal research has been done to study the effect of depressive symptomatology on breastfeeding. This study analyzes how the benefits of breastfeeding past six months, postpartum, can be used as a treatment mechanism for postpartum depression (PPD) with the major contributing factor of gestational weight gain (GWG) in Hispanic women recently immigrated to the United States. I investigated journal articles in four main domains: the likelihood of women presenting with depressive symptomatology as a result of weight gain to initiate and continue breastfeeding, the negative association between increasing maternal antepartum weight and breastfeeding, the possible biological explanations for PPD in women who don’t breastfeed, and the benefits that breastfeeding past six months postpartum can have on MDE and GWG in women. I identified that a correlation between antepartum weight and GWG increases the rate of MDE among women, which has an inverse relationship on women’s likelihood to initiate and continue breastfeeding. Cessation of breastfeeding can put women at risk for increased weight gain and toxic levels of retinoids (Vitamin A) that can lead to cognitive disturbances. Since no longitudinal studies have been conducted specifically examining this comorbidity, more data needs to be collected to support the hypothesis. In order to effectively treat this comorbidity, both biological and psychological causes need to be examined in order to diagnose a major depressive episode (MDE). These methods coupled with a culturally appropriate counseling system can be used to effectively educate women on the benefits of breastfeeding past six months, postpartum, as a treatment mechanism for postpartum depression (PPD) with the major contributing factor of gestational weight gain (GWG) in Hispanic women recently immigrated to the United States

Shifting identities and blurring boundaries : the emergence of Third Space professionals in UK higher education

This paper adds to earlier reviews by the author of the changing roles and identities of contemporary professional staff in UK higher education (Whitchurch, 2004; 2006a; 2006b), and builds on a categorisation of professional staff identities as having bounded, cross-boundary, and unbounded characteristics (Whitchurch, 2008, forthcoming). Drawing on a study of fifty-four professional managers in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States, it describes a further category of blended professionals, who have mixed backgrounds and portfolios, comprising elements of both professional and academic activity. The paper goes on to introduce the concept of third space as an emergent territory between academic and professional domains, which is colonised primarily by less bounded forms of professional. The implications of these developments for institutions and for individuals are considered, and some international comparisons drawn. Finally, it is suggested that third space working may be indicative of future trends in professional identities, which may increasingly coalesce with those of academic colleagues who undertake project- and managementoriented roles, so that new forms of third space professional are likely to continue to emerge