Producing un/professional academics: category boundary work among migrant academics in Thai higher education

Abstract

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This article explores the process of constituting ‘professionalism’ as a discursive category amongst migrant academics working in Thailand. We animate the conceptual resource of ‘category boundary work’ to examine the inclusionary and exclusionary practices by which ‘un/professionalism’ is produced in the talk of 25 aa-jaan dtàang châat or migrant academics working in Thailand. Throughout our data, the discourse of professionalism was constructed in opposition to three key storylines which constituted the ‘unprofessional migrant academic’ as morally questionable; underqualified; and uncommitted. We argue that the constitution of unprofessionalism matters, producing tangible effects for higher education institutions and academic workers alike.