We Only Talk Feminist Here

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction: Framing Feminist Talk

   • Briony Lipton, Elizabeth Mackinlay

   Pages 1-25

3. Writing as Speaking

   • Briony Lipton, Elizabeth Mackinlay

   Pages 27-59

4. Concepts of Voice and Feminism

   • Briony Lipton, Elizabeth Mackinlay

   Pages 61-84

5. Speaking into the Silence

   • Briony Lipton, Elizabeth Mackinlay

   Pages 85-113

6. A Final (In)decision: Talking Feminist

   • Briony Lipton, Elizabeth Mackinlay

   Pages 115-124

7. Back Matter

   Pages 125-128

   PDF

This book explores what it means to ‘only talk feminist here’ in the contemporary neoliberal university. How do feminist academics effect change? How are feminist voices sounded, heard, received, silenced, and masked? We Only Talk Feminist Here offers insight into the complexities, contradictions, and possibilities of ‘talking feminist’; of writing as speaking, problematising notions of voice and agency, of speaking into the silences and the ways in which we fight for and flee to feminist spaces, and of talking back. This book presents new possibilities for framing ‘talking feminist’ differently, by exploring what we say, when we say it, how we say it, and what it means when we do any of these things in terms of our multiple and shifting feminist subjectivities. We Only Talk Feminist Here draws upon interviews and conversations with feminist academics in Australia to demonstrate the performative and discursive moves feminist academics make in order to be heard and effectchange to the gendered status quo in Australian higher education. 

• Academia
• Neoliberalization
• Gender Justice
• Performativity
• Marketization
• Feminism
• Discourse
• Academic women
• Voice
• Agency
• Speaking
• Silences
• Narrative
• Autoethnography
• discourse analysis

“The neoliberal university makes much of their gender equity policies and high participation rates of women, yet antagonism to feminism and feminists, in all our diversities, is constant and virulent. We must take on the ‘masters’ both using and smashing their tools (to misquote Audre Lorde). Briony Lipton and Liz Mackinlay demonstrate how, in this sweeping yet rigorous analysis. It could be read as a narrative of paralysing negative experiences, but equally as a manual for feminist resistance.” (Dr Jeannie Rea, National President of the National Tertiary Education Union, and academic at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia)

“We Only Talk Feminist Here is a brave and exciting work that challenges conventional approaches to academic writing. Drawing on creative anecdotes, an archive of interviews with academic women, and an extensive body of feminist literature, this book provides a unique insight into being feminist in the contemporary space of the neoliberal university… [It] will no doubt contribute meaningfully to feminist discussions more broadly.” (Dr Hannah McCann, Lecturer, Gender Studies, the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia)

• The Australian National University, School of Sociology The Australian National University, Acton, Australia

  Briony Lipton

• School of Education, University of Queensland School of Education, Brisbane, Australia

  Elizabeth Mackinlay

Briony Lipton is a PhD Candidate in the School of Sociology, The Australian National University, Australia. Her current research explores the relationship between academic women, feminism, neoliberalism, university leadership, and gender equality in Australian higher education. 



Elizabeth Mackinlay is Associate Professor in the School of Education, University of Queensland, Australia. Her current research projects include the politics and pedagogies of Indigenous Australian studies, mentoring Indigenous pre-service teachers, autoethnography, and feminism in higher education. 

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