Central and Eastern European Women Academics in the UK

Agnieszka Rydzik is Associate Professor at the University of Lincoln. She has published widely on gender, migration and work. She is currently leading a major British Academy-funded study into technological change and the future of hospitality work.Maria Gebbels is Associate Professor at the University of Greenwich. She publishes on gender, career perceptions and critical hospitality; her research explores belonging, inclusion and unconventional applications of hospitality, including in carceral spaces and adventure tourism.

Migrant women’s search for their place and a new sense of self is particularly relevant in the context of the world today. I could see myself in this book. It really resonated with me and my experiences as a PhD student back in 2004-2010 in the UK. This is a very important collection sharing reflective, personal stories of women academics set against a backdrop of international politics. Making Britain Home is a necessary read, especially when academia is being challenged to meaningfully implement inclusivity and equal opportunities.Karolina Zioło-Pużuk, Assistant Professor, The Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Secretary of State, Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland Stories of migration and mobility, of the search for belonging and (re)making of the self within academic as well as wider contexts of exclusion and othering are brought to life through personal-political reflections about work/life that are powerful, sometimes disturbing, but ultimately uplifting.Sundari Anitha, Chair in Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, UKThis ground-breaking collection of reflexive narratives encompasses themes of identity, belonging and placemaking. Told by Central and Eastern European women migrants in academia in Britain, the essays are a triumphant manifestation of resistance, resilience and joy. These women’s stories of ‘making Britain home’ will connect with you on a visceral level – they will make you cry but you will also laugh out loud with delight. These women’s stories emphasise that the personal is indeed political.Donna Chambers, Professor of Critical Cultural Studies, Northumbria University, UKThis collection of poignant stories helps us to appreciate the challenges faced by female migrant academics across their private and professional lives, often during turbulent times. Above all, these reflective, personal essays show their capacity to exercise agency, offering hope to others within academia (and beyond) that solidarity, emotional intelligence and mentoring are powerful capacities that can help us to thrive. This relatable and instructive edited volume will remain important for future generations of social scientists, historians and to those seeking to understand the experiences of migrant female professionals.Peter Lugosi, Professor of Culture and Organisation, Oxford Brookes University, UK

• Foreword Introducing the multifaceted journeys of making Britain and academia home PART 1: Finding Voice: Navigating expressions of identity 1. Desiring Silence and Liminal Identities: Negotiating the In-Between 2. Beyond the Seams: Un/Belonging and the Migrant Experience 3. Uncovering invisible lives: writing the histories of Hungarian women artists 4. Blue spaces and the art of being: Finding stillness in the tides of (an academic’s) life 5. Out of place? Reflecting on my class and national identity in the UK higher education sector. 6. Don't ask me, why I won't come back: on being an openly autistic academic mother 7. Where are you from? Navigating the complexity of simultaneous exclusion and belonging 8. Polish, Scottish, Scouse? Navigating migrant experiences of language, identity and emotions 9. Living Language In Between: Slovene, English and the Pain of Imperfection 10. Multidimensional role of language in embracing own identities PART 2. Carving space: Trajectories of migration and academic working lives 11. Unable to find a home in the city I now call my home 12. Spinning the Academic Wheel of Fortune: A Reflection from a Polish Female Scholar in the UK 13. UK for Work, Czechia for Living? Reconciling Professional Ambitions and Opportunity Landscapes 14. Casting the anchor: (re)creating home across two countries 15. Transnational (re)rooting: Reconnection, rest and resistance through gardening 16. Will the odds ever be in our favour? The hopes of a working-class migrant navigating British academia 17. My procrastination journey 18. Don’t ask me where I’m from. Ask me where I’m a local: thriving in the Third Space in UK HE 19. Being a Slovak teacher of English in Britain: On language, labelling and politeness PART 3. Negotiating belonging: Everyday experiences of (un)welcome 20. Small Talk, Please: A Show-and-Tell of a Migrant's Home-Searching in England 21. Soundscapes of Belonging: Navigating Post-Brexit Academia as an Eastern European Migrant 22. The Interplay Between Structure and Agency: Navigating Epistemological Belonging 23. From lingua franca to linguistic assimilation: Communicating as a Polish academic in the UK 24. The cat who tried to avoid the axe 25. Lost in Translation, Found in Connection 26. Georgiana and the Dragon: A personal exploration of place attachment and belonging in contemporary Britain 27. The role of upbringing in shaping the experiences of an Eastern European female academic in the UK: A reflective narrative 28. ‘You need to slow down’: negotiating leadership identity in UK higher education 29. Invisible and Visible Borders: Creating Spaces of Belonging Concluding notes on creative reflexivity: From deeply personal to collectively resonant.