Negotiating a transnational career around borders: Women's stories in boundaryless academia

Abstract

The study aimed to give voice to two women sport scientists’ life stories to centralize the challenges and ways of coping their career journeys entailed, and enlighten our understanding of the lived experience and meaning of academic migrating. They shared transnational career stories through interviews and ongoing conversations which we re-story in a creative non-fiction story where we blended the two. Our data collection, analysis and representation were informed by theoretical, methodological and interpretive bricolage. As the creative nonfiction story shows, the academic entrepreneur ideal was somewhat disrupted in the women’s lives, as migration experiences, aside from thrills, also involved rough and complex negotiations and challenges. However, the experiences and lessons learned from migration experiences informed subsequent decisions and relocations while work and home became a state of mind and a sense of comfort for the two women who relentlessly swapped priorities between home and work. We identified three strategies – negotiating, redirecting, and accepting – that the women applied to their home and work life while trying to stay true to themselves and their values. The literature on transnationalism and academics as mobilised professionals helped us bring to light ‘silenced’ elements of the academic narrative as forms of women’s professional development in sport sciences that are not part of ‘official’ narratives of career-building were uncovered.