Reconceptualising cleft habitus: belonging and inclusion at Australian regional universities

Anitra  Goriss-Hunter; Kate White; Cate Thomas; Gail Crimmins; Sarah Casey; Nadya Rizk; Stuart Levy; Agli Zavros-Orr; Petrea Redmond; Kate Ames

doi:10.1007/s13384-025-00904-7

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Reconceptualising cleft habitus: belonging and inclusion at Australian regional universities

Journal article

Open access

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Reconceptualising cleft habitus: belonging and inclusion at Australian regional universities

Anitra Goriss-Hunter, Kate White, Cate Thomas, Gail Crimmins, Sarah Casey, Nadya Rizk, Stuart Levy, Agli Zavros-Orr, Petrea Redmond and Kate Ames

AER, Vol.52, pp.4427-4450

2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-025-00904-7

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Abstract

Gender relations

Higher education

Gender aspects in education

Cleft habitus

Academics

Insider/outsider

Regional

University

Higher education

An autoethnographic exploration of the life and career experiences of ten academics across the Australian Regional University Network (RUN) unearthed a prevailing disjuncture between formative cultural experiences and academia that expands upon Binns' revised notion of cleft habitus. It signifies a gap between the genera-tive capacity of cleft experience and its predominant construction in the literature as loss, difficulty and perceived deficit. Drawing on a framework that combines 'cleft habitus' and principles of intersectionality, this paper examines how cleft experiences impact study and academic work in higher education. Key findings include how academics within a cleft habitus space occupy liminal insider/outsider positions of privilege and disadvantage and can leverage insights gained from these experiences to inform their broad scholarly practice. Reconceptualising cleft habitus as a resource provides a new contribution to discourses around equity, diversity and inclusion in higher education.

Details

Title: Reconceptualising cleft habitus: belonging and inclusion at Australian regional universities
Authors: Anitra Goriss-Hunter (Corresponding Author) - Federation University
Kate White (Author) - Federation University
Cate Thomas (Author) - Charles Sturt University
Gail Crimmins (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative Industries
Sarah Casey (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative Industries
Nadya Rizk (Author) - University of New England
Stuart Levy (Author) - Federation University
Agli Zavros-Orr (Author) - Federation University
Petrea Redmond (Author) - University of Southern Queensland
Kate Ames (Author) - Torrens University Australia
Publication details: AER, Vol.52, pp.4427-4450
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
Date published: 2025
DOI: 10.1007/s13384-025-00904-7
ISSN: 2210-5328
Copyright note: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Organisation Unit: School of Business and Creative Industries
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991168645502621
Output Type: Journal article

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