The Palgrave Handbook of Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxxii

   PDF

2. Situating Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education

   • Maddie Breeze, Michelle Addison, Yvette Taylor

   Pages 1-16

3. Academic Identities—Locating Academic Imposters

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-18

      PDF

   2. Intersectional Imposter Syndrome: How Imposterism Affects Marginalised Groups

      • Helen Hewertson, Faith Tissa

      Pages 19-35

   3. ‘I Shouldn’t Be Here’: Academics’ Experiences of Embodied (Un)belonging, Gendered Competitiveness, and Inequalities in Precarious English Higher Education

      • Jessica Wren Butler

      Pages 37-54

   4. Impostor Phenomenon: Its Prevalence Among Academics and the Need for a Diverse and Inclusive Working Environment in British Higher Education

      • Mioara Cristea, Olugbenga Abraham Babajide

      Pages 55-73

   5. A Stranger’s House

      • Marcella Polain

      Pages 75-90

   6. Marginalising Imposterism: An Australian Case Study Proposing a Diversity of Tendencies that Frame Academic Identities and Archetypes

      • Melinda Lewis, Rosanne Quinnell

      Pages 91-106

   7. The Canary in the Coalmine: The Impact of Imposter Syndrome on Students’ Learning Experience at University

      • Michelle Addison, Nathan Stephens Griffin

      Pages 107-123

4. Academic Identities—Constructing and Contesting Imposter Subjectivities

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 125-125

      PDF

   2. I Have not Always Been Who I Am Now: Using Doctoral Research to Understand and Overcome Feelings of Imposterism

      • Paula Stone

      Pages 127-142

   3. ‘Dual Exclusion’ and Constructing a ‘Bridging’ Space: Chinese PhD Students in New Zealand

      • Yi Huang

      Pages 143-158

   4. Rise with Your Class, not Out of Your Class: Auto-Ethnographic Reflections on Imposter Syndrome and Class Conflict in Higher Education

      • Chloe Maclean

      Pages 159-172

   5. Skin in the Game: Imposter Syndrome and the Insider Sex Work Researcher

      • Gwyn Easterbrook-Smith

      Pages 173-187

   6. Zombies, Ghosts and Lucky Survivors: Class Identities and Imposterism in Higher Education

      • Victoria Mountford-Brown

      Pages 189-207

5. Imposing Institutions—Imposters Across the Career Course

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 209-210

      PDF

   2. Sprinting in Glass Slippers: Fairy Tales as Resistance to Imposter Syndrome in Academia

      • John Hoben, Cecile Badenhorst, Sarah Pickett

      Pages 211-224

   3. Restorying Imposter Syndrome in the Early Career Stage: Reflections, Recognitions and Resistance

      • Charlotte Morris, Laila Kadiwal, Kathryn Telling, Wendy Ashall, Jill Kirby, Shadreck Mwale

      Pages 225-240

   4. Formalised Peer-Support for Early Career Researchers: Potential for Resistance and Genuine Exchanges

      • Virginie Thériault, Anna Beck, Stella Mouroutsou, Jakob Billmayer

      Pages 241-257

   5. Getting Stuck, Writing Badly, and Other Curious Impressions: Doctoral Writing and Imposter Feelings

      • Brittany Amell

      Pages 259-276

This handbook explores feeling like an ‘imposter’ in higher education and what this can tell us about contemporary educational inequalities. Asking why imposter syndrome matters now, we investigate experiences of imposter syndrome across social locations, institutional positions, and intersecting inequalities. Our collection queries advice to fit-in with the university, and authors reflect on (not)belonging in, with and against educational institutions. The collection advances understandings of imposter syndrome as socially situated, in relation to entrenched inequalities and their recirculation in higher education. Chapters combine creative methods and linger on the figure of the ‘imposter’ - wary of both individualising and celebrating imposters as lucky, misfits, fraudsters, or failures, and critically interrogating the supposed universality of imposter syndrome.

• Imposter syndrome
• Sense of belonging
• Identity within Higher Education
• Higher Education and Neoliberalism
• Access to education

“The Palgrave Handbook of Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education gives brilliant insight into how people experience feelings of inclusion and exclusion in higher education. … The conclusion is insightful, entertaining and helpful for anyone within higher education. … The Handbook nonetheless gives fascinating insight into the concept of imposter syndrome and the range of ways in which different groups in higher education experience it, alongside practical advice for academic researchers and students.” (Christopher Featherstone, LSE Review of Books, blogs.lse.ac.uk, May 11, 2023)

• Department of Sociology, Durham University, Durham, UK

  Michelle Addison

• Sociology and Public Sociology, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, UK

  Maddie Breeze

• School of Education, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

  Yvette Taylor

Michelle Addison is Assistant Professor at Durham University, UK. Michelle's research is concerned with inequality and a long-term vision of social justice for those facing the greatest social disadvantages in society.

 

Maddie Breeze is Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Strathclyde, UK. She researches inequalities in universities, including via imposter syndrome, widening participation, and queer/feminist approaches to higher education.

 

Yvette Taylor is Professor at the University of Strathclyde, UK. She is a feminist sociologist and researches intersecting social and educational inequalities, including manifestations of gender, social class and sexuality.

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