By Lauren Valencia
A University of Guelph researcher is using lived experience to examine how queer faculty members navigate higher education, shedding light on issues of equity, professionalism and belonging.
Dr. Adam Davies, associate professor of interdisciplinary studies in the School of Fine Art and Music, College of Arts, co-authored a paper with Dr. Orion Neustifter, associate professor in the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, College of Social and Applied Human Sciences. The paper, Heteroprofessionalism in the Academy: The Surveillance and Regulation of Queer Faculty in Higher Education, explores how queer faculty members experience higher education.
This research uses autoethnography, an approach that combines lived experiences with critical analysis of broader social and institutional systems. Using this method, Davies treats personal stories not as separate from research, but as valuable sources of knowledge.
The work grew from the authors' own experiences navigating academic spaces and ties into broader questions about professionalism, inclusion and belonging.
Davies says the project was inspired by a desire to better understand how queer people move through institutions that can simultaneously celebrate diversity while still maintaining barriers to full inclusion.
"We wanted to offer both critique and hope," they say. "As queer people, we find ways to cultivate hope. Queer people have always been able to find each other in conditions that seem impossible, and we've always been able to make kinship and relations and support even when it feels like there's no hope."
Challenging the Concept of Legitimate Scholarship
Davies’ research also challenges assumptions about what counts as legitimate scholarship. Personal narratives are often dismissed as overly subjective, but they argue that lived experiences can reveal how systems and institutions operate in everyday life.
“By examining those experiences, researchers can better understand how people encounter inclusion, exclusion and belonging within educational settings,” they say.
Davies believes these conversations are especially important today. As anti-queer and anti-trans rhetoric continues to gain visibility in some political and social contexts, discussions about professionalism and higher education are increasingly tied to broader questions about equity, representation and whose voices are valued.
“Historically, professionalism has often been used to encourage conformity and discourage people from speaking openly about discrimination or systemic inequities,” they say.
Davies says the research points to the strength of queer communities and the need for systemic change. They hope the research encourages educators, administrators and policymakers to think critically about how institutions can become more supportive and inclusive, and that students, educators and early-career academics see themselves reflected in the work.
"You can't rely on systems to always give you what you need, and so sometimes you have to find what you need yourself," they say. "Queer people have always had to do that."
