The personal is still political: Collective biographical memory work and feminist practice

Abstract

abstract We are a group of women working across a variety of domains within a tertiary education context, in a time of transition in tertiary education, who are using a process of collective biographical memory work in our research. Working with our memory of co-constructed fictional characters from our childhood, we trace our development as a diversity of third wave feminists sensitive to the privileges and exclusions of our positions. What were the gendered influences at play in our early memory and how have these shaped who we have now become? In particular, how have these influences positioned us as women academics in the current regime of performance-based accountability and multiple redundancies? Our analysis uncovers layers of negotiation between expected behaviour and new possible selves