Faculty Denied Tenure: Internalization, Resistance, and the Power of Structural Stigma

• In Event: Power Across the Faculty Career

Abstract

The literature on faculty denied tenure (FDT) tends to focus on individual trauma and legal issues. Few studies consider the structural implications of tenure denial, tacitly releasing institutional agency from scrutiny. In this qualitative study of 15 individuals who were denied tenure, we meld Goffman’s social-psychological concept of stigma and Foucault’s structural interrogation to analyze how institutional systems create and maintain power through stereotypes of failure that are internalized or resisted by FDT. Findings point toward a need for interrogation of institutional advantages won through the assignment of moral culpability to individuals for their denial of tenure.

Authors

• Nathan F. Alleman, Baylor University

• Justin Nelson, Campbell University

• Cara Cliburn Allen, Baylor University