Young Scholars’ Life Trajectories: Identity, Power and Emotional Labor in the Latin American University

• In Event: The emergence and transformation of occupations

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in the changing conditions of academic labor. The emergence of 'second-class academics' has been reported in the Global North, as well as growing pressures to lecture and publish, albeit with fewer resources. Embedded in a model of “neoliberal university,” academic work has become precarious. Past research has emphasized two aspects. First, it has mapped institutional changes, such as the transformation of university funding and of global competition. Secondly, it has mostly studied the European and American cases, limiting a truly global perspective.

In a dialogue with the literature on emotional labor, my research analyzes how young scholars in a top Peruvian university develop their work, analyzing the individual and collective strategies used to deal with jobs they love, even when they recognize as precarious ones. Through in-depth interviews with almost fifty under-35 research assistants and junior lecturers, I give an account of the role, not always visible or accepted, of authority relations between tenured professors and their assistants. In showing how young scholars are willing to work overtime for very low wages in exchange for letters of recommendation and publication promises, I shall discuss the organizational and labor relations behind the “making of science” in our region.

Author

• Walter Omar Manky Bonilla, Universidad del Pacífico