The (im)possibility of Joy in academia for racialized scholars: Reflections from a podcast project

Abstract

This paper draws on our podcast conversations with racialized scholars based in the Netherlands and Belgium on the (im)possibility of practicing Joy in predominantly white academic spaces. In our podcast, we approach Joy as a political act of solidarity and resistance that generates alternative ways of doing research, teaching, and community building in academia. Our conversations shed light on the way Joy is practiced both as a tool and a weapon to refuse academic whiteness and sustain alternative collective ways of being, feeling, and thinking that disrupt and move beyond extractive and exploitive academic norms, structures, and practices.