Page 125 - Through the gate of the neoliberal academy • Herschberg
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Department (SSH1, SSH2, SSH3) and three in a Natural Sciences Department (STEM1, STEM2, STEM3). I attended all committee meetings: the meetings where the shortlist was made (in two cases this was done by e-mail), meetings where candidates were interviewed, lunch meetings in between the interviews, and meetings in which the interviewed candidates were discussed and rankings were made. In one case (STEM3), I was allowed to make voice recordings of two meetings: one lunch meeting after the first couple of interviews, and one meeting after all candidates had been interviewed to decide on the ranking of the candidates. This was the case that had the longest deliberations of all cases. My observations were limited to formal communications between committee members and informal conversations directly after the meetings. I was not present during informal discussions in hallways or behind closed doors. In total, I observed 70,5 hours of meetings. As the research focus calls for exploring practicing gender in hiring committees when evaluating both men and women candidates, I included those procedures where women and men were invited for an interview. In the STEM2 procedure no women candidates were invited for an interview and therefore I decided not to include this procedure in this study. This chapter is thus based on five cases, which consisted of 55 hours of observations.
During all meetings I took detailed notes of the questions that were asked to candidates, first reflections of committee members, and the decision-making deliberations. After the meetings and during breaks I wrote field notes in order to capture my experiences and first impressions. Additionally, I was included in e-mail conversations between committee members about for example the procedure and the ranking of candidates. I do not know if I have been included in all e-mail messages that were exchanged between committee members, as I depended on the committee members to include me as a recipient of the e-mails. I also received the appointment reports that were written after the final rankings were made. I used departmental recruitment protocols to get more information about hiring procedures in the departments.
The size of the committee ranged from 3 to 6 members who are part of the academic staff. Taken together, 7 women and 20 men academics participated in the hiring committees. Furthermore, all committees invited 1 or 2 student members to participate (3 women and 4 men in total). In the STEM committees there was an HR advisor present during committee meetings (both men and women). In total, 34 candidates were invited for a job interview of which 8 women.
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