Researching at a regional university: Doing the public good or institutional expectations?

In this paper I explore what it means to do research in contemporary times in a specific regional academic site through a discourse analysis of interview data collected as part of my thesis research. I begin by looking at the contextual nature of the changing academic workplace. I then highlight what is regarded as legitimate research within a specific regional academic workplace. I explore the research discourses circulating with this regional site and demonstrate the ways in which these discourses then position two academic women. I suggest that developing research partnerships with the community is a way of transcending dominant research discourses. Therefore I argue that the notion of doing the public good is shaped by local institutional expectations. I conclude that only specific kinds of research are regarded as legitimate or ‘good research’ and that this is reinforcing stereotypical images around who is seen as the ‘good academic” but for those academic women taking on community partnerships there is the potential to position themselves as doing the public good in line with dominant institutional expectations. However there is also potential work load issues and the danger of putting aside that PhD.