Understanding academic identity through liminality: implications for leadership and academic development

This paper examines how academic staff make sense of their academic identity within a university undergoing continuous change. While academic identity is increasingly recognized as central to professional development and adaptation, academic environments are often characterized by competition, fragmented support, and tensions between multiple roles. To explore how academic identity is formed and negotiated under these conditions, the study adopts a socio-cultural approach and draws on the concepts of liminality and the university as a liminal space. Empirical data were collected through semi-structured interviews with academic staff ( N = 21) from different disciplines at one Estonian university and analyzed using an abductive analytical process. The findings show that academic identity is relational and shaped by personal, collective, and institutional forms of liminality. Academic identity development is often marked by uncertainty, emotional tensions and fragility, but also by opportunities for renewal. The study highlights the importance of reflective, dialogic, and collaborative learning cultures in supporting academic identity formation, professional belonging, and collegiality.