Behind Closed Doors: Complaint as Diversity Work
This lecture draws on interviews conducted with staff and students who have made complaints within universities that relate to unfair, unjust or unequal working conditions and to abuses of power such as sexual and racial harassment. It approaches complaint as diversity work: the work some have to do because they are not accommodated; the work some have to do in order to be accommodated. Making a complaint often requires becoming an institutional plumber: you have to work out how and where complaints get blocked. It is because of how complaints get stuck in the system that they often end up being about the system. The lecture explores the significance of how complaints happen “behind closed doors,” and shows how doors are often closed even when they appear to be opened.
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