As part of his recently completed ‘Supporting the Identity Development of Underrepresented Students’ (SIDUS) project (funded by Imperial College London), Dr. Billy Wong (Associate Professor in Widening Participation, University of Reading) and colleagues from Imperial College London has published an article in the journal Sociology, entitled ‘Deindividualising Imposter Syndrome: Imposter Work Amongst Marginalised STEMM Undergraduates in the UK’.

Led by Dr. Murray (research associate on the SIDUS project), their latest paper argues that imposter feelings are a form of unevenly distributed emotional work. The paper explores how marginalised students’ imposter feelings are often in response to, and reinforced by, the exclusionary atmosphere of university, resulting in more imposter work to survive and thrive in university. Three key themes are explored: 1). the situated and relational nature of imposter feelings, 2). the uneven distribution of imposter work, and 3). the myth of individual overcoming.

For more information on Dr. Wong’s research, visit his staff profile page here. You can also follow him on Twitter here.

 

 

Reference

Murray, O.M., Chiu, Y.L.T., Wong, B., & Horsburgh, J. (2022). Deindividualising Imposter Syndrome: Imposter Work Amongst Marginalised STEMM Undergraduates in the UK. Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385221117380