Personal identity, public intellect: how faculty members’ identities influence and inspire public scholarship

Institutions of higher education often require tenured and tenure-track faculty members to both publish in peer-reviewed journals and conduct work as a public intellectual. Although a wealth of literature documenting the experiences of faculty on the tenure-track as it relates to the promotion and tenure process exists, sparse research has investigated how tenured and tenure-track faculty are influenced and inspired to produce public scholarship, scholarship for audiences beyond academia. Through a pheno­menological approach, this study interviewed 14 tenure-track and tenured faculty members to explore these motivations. Findings suggest public scholarship often is intimately tied to marginalized intersectional identities, including race, gender, professional appointment, and family status. The study highlights challenges faculty face in navigating institutional barriers and implications for faculty socialization and support.