In Two Places at Once: The Impact of Caring Responsibilities on Academics’ Conference Participation: Final Project Report

Sticky care and conference travel: unpacking care as an explanatory factor for gendered academic immobility

“…These included engaging in preparatory tasks where participants attempted to pre-empt the tasks that would be required during their absence and engaging in substantial virtual management of the care/household tasks from the conference. In addition, it is also necessary to note that each participant's strategies differed according to the nature of their caring responsibilities, and also according to their life circumstances (Henderson et al 2018); these variations also merit further exploration. Notable areas for further exploration which appeared in the study included men academics, sole parents, same-gender couples and/or couples with trans and/or non-binary members and/or academics living outside of the couple structure, dual career academic couples, migrant academics, academics with complex and multiple caring responsibilities, academics practising a faith and academics living in remote locations away from travel hubs.…”

“…This article draws on data from an in-depth, exploratory qualitative study entitled 'In Two Places at Once' (Henderson et al 2018). The study used diary-interview method (Zimmerman and Wieder 1977), where 20 self-selected academics 2 with caring responsibilities 3 completed a time log for one conference attended, on which they noted their preparation and catch-up tasks as well as interactions with caring responsibilities and/or co-carers while at the conference (Henderson 2019a).…”

“…The time log provided the foundation for an in-depth interview in which participants discussed both the logged conference and their conference participation in general. The study took into consideration the principles of trustworthiness for solicited diary research outlined by Filep et al (2017) (see Henderson et al 2018, for greater detail on the study).…”

“…The empirical study that underpins the article was a project investigating the impact of caring responsibilities on academics' conference participation, 'In Two Places at Once' (Henderson 2019a;Henderson et al 2018). The project included a research question which asked participants to discuss whether international conference travel involves different care strategies and processes to national conference travel.…”

A PhD In motion: Advancing a critical academic mobilities approach (CAMA) to researching short-term mobility schemes for doctoral students

“…I did not have dependent caring responsibilities, where mobility is particularly challenging (Henderson & Moreau, in review), but I do have a partner, and this fact underpinned my decision to engage in shorter but more numerous trips. However the shorter visits were disruptive to the household routines (see more on this issue in Henderson, Cao and Mansuy, 2018). In relation to the OIV, contextual constraints featured, in that French academia operates differently to UK academia, and my lack of social capital in the form of local or locally known people and lack of institutional support both meant that no one could advise me on what to do and that the system was closed to me as an outsider.…”