Abstract: This article explores one particular type of regret that has so far garnered little feminist attention: academic regrets. Drawing on extensive interviews conducted by the author, the essay explores the regrets of women academics who are, or have been, temporarily employed at universities in the global North: on fixed-term, short-term, fractional, or casualized contracts. I argue that, for all their bad rap, regrets in general and academic regrets in particular can be feminist tools, insofar as they help empower the least powerful among academic workers: the contingent or temporarily employed, most of whom are women and/or minoritized scholars. Because regrets allowed the precarious scholars in this study to reconsider their next career move, change tracks, or reinvent themselves and their relation to their chosen profession, academic regrets, especially when directed to an approach or tactic, rather than a momentous decision, can be empowering mechanisms that help redress the power imbalance between higher education institutions and casualized academic workers. By examining regrets in the professional arena, this essay complements previous work on regret, abortion, and feminism, while illuminating women’s existence beyond reproduction. It also warns us of dangers ahead under current threats to education and the academic profession, in the United States and elsewhere.
Marina Cano (Mon,) studied this question.