“THE SKIN I AM IN”: OUR REFLECTIONS AS NON-MAINSTREAM RESEARCHERS IN BRAZILIAN ACCOUNTING ACADEMIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4270/ruc.2025109Palavras-chave:
Identidade acadêmica, Violência epistêmica, Escrever de forma diferenteResumo
We discuss and analyze how being a non-mainstream accounting researcher shapes our professional identities and careers. Methodologically, we draw upon auto-ethnographic narratives of our trajectories highlighting critical episodes that happened throughout our careers and that have shaped our identities. We argue that the social norms established by the Brazilian accounting community relies upon normative and symbolic violence to sustain the “ideal academic” mold, that is, positivist, sexist, racist, and heteronormative molds. Our findings demonstrate how symbolic and epistemological violence is mobilized to marginalize academics outside the “ideal academic” mold and how the Brazilian accounting academia builds, legitimizes and sustains a normative ideal of what constitutes both accounting research and accounting researchers. In this sense, we unveil how universities construct and sustain sexist, racist, and heteronormative molds imposing the cost of being “The One” for all those who challenge/sit outside the status quo. On the other hand, we account for the importance of resisting through caring and rebelling in order to change the current normative and violent mold. We hope to contribute to the literature about academic identities by adding evidence from the Brazilian context, where the academic career differs from those in Global North countries. Moreover, we hope to contribute by illustrating how neoliberal and performativity pressures are endangering academic freedom and profession. Lastly, we hope to contribute to accounting literature by accounting for the hostile environment faced by academics from non-hegemonic groups.
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