Dialogues for equity: precarious parent-scholars in times of crisis

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic amplified inequities around parent-scholars in the neoliberal gig academy. This paper documents the stories and intersectional struggles of four precarious parent-scholars as they navigated doctoral work, dissertation defenses, research, remote teaching, and family life during the pandemic. We illustrate how we navigated our neoliberal subjectivities and the extending multifold crises around the division of labor between academic work and parenting, gender roles, and internalized pressures exacerbated by a public postsecondary education system that exploits increasingly precarious workforces. Through critical collaborative autoethnography, we reflect on our parenting and teaching from March 2020 to August 2021. Drawing from our collective findings we summarize three mutually interdependent areas of communicative intervention that can make our workplace more equitable, entailing self-reflection, negotiation of labor, and collaborative dialogue.