16. To the Center and Back

Abstract

My academic life has been on the move. Movements across disciplinary, geographical and societal boundaries have been central to my subjective experience of relocating to and navigating different academic spaces. This essay reflects on how the effort to re-integrate into the university in Italy has been chiefly defined by my identity as a homecoming Italian female researcher and how moving back has made me radically aware of how gender marks endemic precarity within Italian academia. The narrative also touches upon empowering moments of participating in networks where situating the subjective experience of gendered precarity translates into collective efforts to create alternative academic spaces and practices of care and mutual recognition.