ABSTRACT
What makes an academic? Is it their unyielding devotion to research and teaching, their tendency towards a hermitic existence? Or does it have more to do with their socioeconomic privilege and racial profile? Are academics today any different from what society has always known them to be? How homogenous is the group of academics? Historically, academia was populated by men from the upper classes, often somewhat similar to each other. Over time, structures and procedures were established to ensure both scientific quality and academic exclusion. This chapter deconstructs the myths surrounding academics and the lives they lead within academia. Through shards of broken mirrors is the reader encouraged to look at a group of misfits that are the odd one out in most academic contexts that defy common classifications. Misfits that would like to devote only 40 working hours to academia instead of their whole being. Misfits that use the “wrong” theoretical lenses, unpopular methods, or undesirable contexts. Misfits that don’t fit in by matter of race, ethnicity, sex, or social economic class. Misfits that have found their misfitting family and hold on for dear life.
