Affective Labor and Alt-Ac Careers

In her groundbreaking work The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling (1983), sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild described “emotional labor management” as follows: “to induce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others.” Think of a retail worker in customer relations who must keep calm and be pleasant even when dealing with someone who is irate. While scholars have explored the affective realm when it comes to teaching and being a professor, there is less written about the experience of those working in nonteaching areas of academia—“alt-ac.” Affective Labor and Alt-Ac Careers critically examines aspects of affective and emotional labor involved in alt-ac careers in higher education. This is the first and only book of its kind that focuses on affective labor and alt-ac/staff careers in higher education. Cross-profession and cross-disciplinary, the book takes seriously the invisible labor performed at our institutions by academic staff, work that is essential for the success of our students. Research in this volume allows an opportunity for those in alt-ac careers to examine and share their affective experiences in their roles in technology, administration, research, and academic support services and as librarians, academic advisors, and writing center instructors—among others. Affective Labor and Alt-Ac Careers is the third book in Kansas's Rethinking Careers, Rethinking Academia series, which seeks projects that lead to meaningful professional development and create lasting value for graduate students, recent and experienced PhDs, university faculty and administrators, and the growing alt-ac and post-ac community.

Series Editors' Foreword Introduction, Lee Skallerup Bessette 1. “Why Would You Want to Do That?” Managing Desire for Alt-Ac Work, Traci Freeman 2. What's Love Got to Do with It?, Melissa Dalgleish 3. Affective Allyship Alt-Ac Identity and Political Work in Higher Education, Grace Pollock 4. When Is an Academic Not an Academic? Embracing Nontraditional Academics in Academia, Nicole Papaioannou 5. You're OK, I&8217;m Always OK Educational Development and Emotional Labor, Martha Diede 6. Plays Well with Others Practicing Emotional Labor in the Writing Center, Karen Rosenberg 7. The Difficulties of Removing the Pink Collar Affective Labor and Educational Development, Lindsay Bernhagen and Emily O. Gravett 8. Affective Labor and the Balancing Act for Women in Academic Technology, Celeste Tüng Vy Sharpe and Carly J. Born 9. Emotional Labor in Open Access Librarianship, Jennifer Hodl Solomon and Rebekah Kati 10. Telling Alternate Stories Academic Advising, Student Fear, and Living Our Parallel Plans, Elizabeth Lundberg 11. Both Student and Employee Uncovering the Affective Labor of Supervising Student Staff, Daniel Dale 12. Leaning toward Joy Affective Labor, DHD, and Being Alt-Ac, Matthew J. Trybus with Emily O. Gravett 13. Honoring Others by Honoring Ourselves Affective Labor and Mentoring Programs, Leeann Hunter 14. More Denial, More Problems, Deborah Maron Conclusion, Lee Skallerup Bessett List of Contributors Index