Racism and Sexism as a (Non-)Crisis in Higher Education

Abstract

Academia is facing a state of crisis with persistent inequality between mainstream and marginalised groups. This paper starts from the academic and public debate that defines racial-gender inequality in academia as a crisis, which contrasts the way in which universities have dealt with inequality in the past few decades. Employing Sylvia Walby’s and Janet Roitman’s crisis concept, I investigate academic managers’ understanding of gender-racial inequality in Belgian and Danish universities. Academic managers’ perceptions of gender-racial inequality are detrimental as they play a key role in the agenda-setting of their institutions, among which the development of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion work. Based on in-depth interviews, findings show that academic managers use three framing strategies that are inherently tied to a non-crisis narrative. By justifying gender-racial inequality as (a) a normal part of the meritocratic-neoliberal game (meritocratic-neoliberal justificatory frame), (b) a matter out of their hands (power deflection justificatory frame), and (c) an issue from the past while equality is relegated to the future (time politics justificatory frame), they exempt themselves from tackling gender-racial inequality. I conclude by advocating for a shift from a language of diversity to a language of crisis. Framing racism and sexism as a crisis evokes a sense of urgency to foster equality in academia.