Introduction

This book discusses feminist interventions in dominant organizations of knowledge production. As a feminist anthology, it attempts to be both a political and strategic act, bringing authors together through a shared commitment and purpose. In this it breaks the primary taboo of women being seen together, especially women congregating with intent. Feminisms are located as creative energy for change and critique, empowering women to apply political understanding to methodologies for teaching, learning, research and writing in the academy. Contributors demonstrate how feminist analysis of the micropolitics of the academy in terms of power, policies, discourses, curriculum, pedagogy and intra-and interpersonal relationships, provides a framework for deprivatizing women’s experiences and influencing change. Academic feminism is also problematized and deconstructed, particularly in relation to the linkage of the two terms. For many, academic feminism is a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron (Elam, 1994), selling out feminists’ commitment to everyday praxis. Yet, on the other hand, academic feminism is also frequently viewed by the establishment as being insufficiently academic. Using theoretical constructs, our own biographies and experience, as impetus, example and frame, women map present predicaments and inequalities, and identify sites and opportunities for strategic interventions. We notice the transformative possibilities of feminism as an oppositional discourse whilst acknowledging that all experience is mediated by a discourse. As multi-dimensional actors, feminist academics are conceptualized as innovative rather than reactive, creating optimism about the permeation and permanence of change. Feminist process acts as both politics and self-care.