ABSTRACT
The focus of this gallery is on those who come into academia later in life, and for who it is a second or later career. Through two miniatures and one portrait, the contributors address many themes to depict their experience: the complexity of university structures, the numerous internal barriers inside institutions, the arbitrariness of promotion processes, the subtleties of the social worlds inhabited by academics, the hypocrisies of universities publicly valuing experience but ignoring this same experience when it comes to pay and promotion, and the profound motivations of individuals making-up this group. This is an occupational group that is overlooked in research, as scant attention has been paid to their predicament and the specific challenges they face. This gallery may inspire ‘late-entrants’ to reflect on their own experience and motivations but may also inspire more formal research into this area.
