The voice of the academic subaltern: hegemony and self-determination

Abstract

Women often become the subaltern in the higher education hegemonic umbrella when they are situated outside the hegemonic power structure and discourse or outside of the traditional career tracks. Subalterns are rendered mute by the "epistemic violence" of the hegemonic discourse. In order to be heard, they must adopt the thought, the reasoning and the language of the dominant group. In academia that relates largely to performance productivity in terms of the measurement of output obtained from a certain amount of input. One acquires agency at the point where you are able to identify and control your disposition. This reflexive moment allows for a certain degree of self-determination, even if the categories of perception are themselves determined. Gaining academic and social capital is the way and possibly the only way that the academic subaltern may be able to speak. Capital refers to that which is symbolically valued. Academic capital (gained through publishing for example) is one of the major factors contributing to the academic’s career advancement. You gain recognition and a voice via the accumulation of capital within the field. It is also critical for the novice academic to start actively engaging in building social capital early in their academic careers. In the digital age, this would mean enhancing your digital footprint through online networks such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, LinkedIn and other tools as well as engaging with coaches and mentors who could act as social capital donors. The subaltern could embrace the voice that might be gained in academia through accumulating academic and social capital in order to challenge the status quo, although it remains a voice in a patriarchal domain.