This document discusses subalternity, or the status of being socially, politically, and geographically outside the dominant power structure, in the context of higher education. It defines who can be considered subaltern in HE, such as lower-paid and lower-status staff including support staff, technicians, and administrative workers. The document examines how the subaltern are often rendered invisible or "mute" by the dominant discourse and power structures. It provides direct quotes from interviews with subaltern HE staff that illustrate their experiences of feeling overlooked, undervalued, and unable to advance due to their status and role. The quotes reveal tensions between academic and non-academic staff and shed light on the hidden transcripts and perspectives of the subaltern voices within

1. Vicki Trowler

2. To follow:
 Standard disclaimer
 Introducing subalternity
 Subalternity in HE
 Studying the invisible “other”
 And so…?

3. What is Subalternity?
 “ persons who are socially, politically, and
geographically outside of the hegemonic power
structure”
 Spivak - “epistemic violence” of “hegemonic
discourse” renders the subaltern mute
 In order to be heard, subaltern must adopt dominant
thought, reasoning and language – they can never
express their own reasoning, forms of knowledge or
logic

4. Who is the subaltern in HE?
 HE “Estates” (van den Berghe 1973)
 Professoriate
 Intermediate Estate
 Subordinate Staff
 Students
 -> Manageriate (Scholtz 2004)
 Lowest paid / lowest status:
 More likely to be black than white
 More likely to be women than men
 More likely to have LSE background than higher

5. Subalternity: bell hooks
No need to hear your voice when I can talk about you
better than you can speak about yourself. No need to
hear your voice. Only tell me about your pain. I want to
know your story. And then I will tell it back to you in a
new way. Tell it back to you in such a way that it has
become mine, my own. Re-writing you I write myself
anew. I am still author, authority. I am still colonizer the
speaking subject and you are now at the center of my
talk.
hooks, bell. Marginality as a site of resistance, in R. Ferguson et
al. (eds), Out There: Marginalization and contemporary Cultures.
Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1990: pp. 241-43

6. Studying the invisible “other”
 Emic vs etic / endogenous vs exogenous
 Violating the subaltern
 Political and ethical issues in endogenous research

7. Hidden Transcripts
 Scott: hidden transcripts vs public transcripts
 Take place offstage
 Accessible only to subalterns
 Rendered visible at the point of rupture

8. In their own words, 1
 I thought sharp! I will be able to pick up some tricks
and make some connections while I am working here,
but to [the academics in the department of study] I am
just a skippie that takes notes in meetings they are
sometimes at. They do not see me as becoming them
one day; they see me as becoming the Registrar.
 - Clerical staff member, p/c 7

9. In their own words, 2
 Just because I took a part-time job as a secretary in the
Department to help me financially while I was finishing my PhD,
I will forever be <name>-the-secretary, and never just <name>
again. It’s as though a year capturing undergraduate essay marks
has forever erased all of my seminar papers, my conference
presentations and my undergraduate tutoring, and shown up the
true colours they suspected all along – that I wasn’t really serious
in my academic aspirations and was just using my studies as
some kind of husband-hunting technique. Every time a vacancy
for a junior [academic] post opens in the department,
[academic] colleagues start avoiding me out of embarrassment
that I might dare to apply again and shame them into having to
turn me down once more, and ads for administrative posts get
slipped discreetly into my pigeon-hole as if to show me the error
of my ways.
 - part-time secretarial staff member, p/c 6,

10. In their own words, 3
 These old white men! They think that a black man will
never be able to do what it is they are doing, to stand
up and speak with authority and have a whole class
listen with attention, to publish a paper that makes
headlines or to discover something new. They think we
are just there to clean the boards after lectures and to
carry out the rubbish!
 - Human Resource Assistant, p/c 7

11. And so….?

12. In their own voices…
 …the bottom line is that all the racism and sexism
discrimination stuff is, in fact, mixed into the
discrimination between academics and administrative
workers. I do not say this lightly. I wish that survey has
asked us (non-acad. staff) how we experienced academics,
and how they create stress for us. (I'm not saying we don't
also cause stress). But there is a class divide here that
matters... We can't talk about what the survey says until we
can talk about being [non-acad] and being academics, and
what happens between us, to create a culture of stress, and
silencing, every day. There are some departments which are
different, but mine isn't one of them.
 - anonymous feedback via webform

15. Can / May the subaltern speak?
 Acquisition of discourse
 Speaking a dialect / with an “accent”

16. In their own voices, 1
 I know it’s supposed to be [the HOD]’s job, but he’s
made it clear that this “management” stuff isn’t what
he signed up to do, and I’m the one that gets shouted
at if it doesn’t get done.
 - Admin Assistant, p/c 7
 Every time I wanted to learn something on the
computer, they pointed me at the [reception] window
and said, “There, that’s your job!”
 - Secretary, p/c 5

18. In their own voices, 2
 How much extra stuff has been devolved onto us all in the
last few years, think about it!! Think about how the
technology has evolved, too. And most of us rise to the
occasion splendidly. Personally, I find it quite invigorating.
I'm not bored yet. My job IS my PDP!!! I think we're just
being hoodwinked. I haven't yet got plans to enroll in
Registrar101 classes - I might find it not as exciting (but
definitely better paid).
An assessment of how jobs have changed, and a re-
evaluation of job descriptions, would be an eye-opening
exercise - to my mind.
 Administrative Assistant, p/c 7

19. In their own words, 3
 Colour is moving out of the equation, but the "baas-
klaas“[boss-servant] relation remains.
 - Senior Technical Officer, p/c 9

20. In their own words, 4
 …the archaic receptionist / secretary / senior secretary /
Administrative Assistant nomenclature HAS TO GO!
Lawks! These are course administrators / undergraduate
administrators / postgrad administrators / departmental
managers / mini-accountants / HR-jack-of-trades /
shoulders-to-cry-on / technological mini-experts-and-
first-port-of-callers-when-your-PC-isn't-working people
we're talking about! The current titles are too steeped in a
history of "female", "nurturer", and by extrapolation "sub-
ordinate" - not to slate the first two qualities but, face it,
connecting the dots from there have historically very
seldom lead to "high remuneration".
 - Administrative Assistant, p/c 7

21. In their own words, 5
 This kind of thing [a mistake] shouldn’t be happening – the
[SAP] System doesn’t allow it anymore… It’s good because it
makes it the same for everyone, no favours for friends, but
it means I’m becoming just a clerk entering data, just
pushing buttons on a computer.
 - Human Resource Officer, p/c 8
 Of course, if your step-daughter studied here, she’d get a
discount… I know the website says only direct dependents
and she’s not actually living with you, but ultimately I’m
the one who makes the call who does and doesn’t qualify,
and I think it would be fair! [shrugs]
 - Human Resource Advisor, p/c 11

22. In their own words, 6
 A couple of years ago, they didn’t know what to do with
us, we were facing outsourcing and retrenchment.
Then they discovered that we have skills that can be
used to teach the students, and we’re much cheaper
than academics, so suddenly we find ourselves in
demand.
 - Chief Technical Officer, p/c 10

23. In their own words, 7
 We can’t appoint [researchers] on academic
conditions, because they won’t meet all the Rate for
Job requirements – they don’t teach the required
number of hours, or sit on the right number of
committees… They just really do research. So we have
to appoint them on [non-academic] conditions.
 - Human Resource Advisor, p/c 11

24. In their own words, 8
 I am having a problem about salary grade system of
University staffs. There are people who have
qualifications here such as diplomas, degrees, Matrics
and Secondary standards. In terms of the salary, we are
equal. Do you think is that the promotion of education
at the university. Why do these people have the same
salary. You are educated and you end up being
exploited.
 - Clerical staff member, p/c 7

26. In their own words, 9
 Of course I could do this job without a degree – I could
probably do it without even going to school! But I
think my studies have helped me understand the
context, not just of the job but of the whole system, so
that I can think of better ways of doing it and different
ways we can work as a team to be more effective and
more efficient. But the University is not interested in
that – they want you to act dumb & be grateful for the
peanuts they toss your way each month.
 - Administrative Assistant, p/c 7

27. In their own words, 10
 For me, it is very frustrating. I can see how things can
be done better, but when I suggest these things I am
told by my manager that it is this way for a reason, and
I must just accept it. I think she is threatened because
she does not have a degree and she makes remarks
about “the real world” as if what we study is about
Mars.
 - Senior secretary, p/c 6

28. In their own words, 11
 I have applied for another position in a higher
payclass, and I asked my manager to be a referee. She
said how could she recommend me for that post when
she has not seen evidence of me having initiative – but
when I take initiative I get told I am acting outside of
my job description and that I must simply do what she
tells me and nothing else.
 - Human Resource officer, p/c 8

29. In their own words, 12
 For undergraduates, they can agree with their manager
that third lecture they will go to class, and work in the
time in their lunch break, but for us [post-graduates]
we don’t have lectures, and when there is a seminar
you have to go ask for that time and you get told, “but I
want that done before my meeting,” never mind that it
is a Nobel prizewinner coming to speak.
 - Human Resource Administrator, p/c 7

30. Who may speak in HE?
 HE governed collegially by committees
 Membership of committees comprises
 Manageriate
 Professoriate
 Intermediate Estate
 Students (delegates or trustees)
 Subordinate staff present only in servicing capacity
 No vote
 No voice – speak only when spoken to

31. “Well, so they ought…”
 “Only those involved in “core business” should run it”
 BUT:
 Changing nature of work
 Knowledge economy
 Castells – self-programmable vs generic labour
 University as a “knowledge business”
 Many “non-academics” do knowledge work:
 Librarians
 E-learning staff
 Contract research staff
 Planning staff
 Technical staff
 Etc.

32. The Study
 Participant observation – 40 staff
 Endogenous research – role contamination
 3 bodies of literature – different discourses
 Virgin concept operationalisation:
 3fold nature of “class”
 Indicators & proxies
 Dialogic relationship of data and theory
 Invasion of the excluded:
 Impact of race
 Impact of gender