Valuable Labour: Academic Service in Promotion and Tenure

Research Project, 2021 –

The 2021 revision of Chalmers’ Arbetsordningen (Rules of Procedure) added “academic service” as a new competency area in which employees are evaluated. This study relies on in-depth interviews to define academic service activities in the department of Architecture and Civil Engineering and assesses the degree to which such tasks count in promotion and tenure processes. The goal is to identify ways to reward academic labour that is undervalued and/or invisible in academia and that is disproportionately carried out by women and members of other marginalized groups. The research examines quality criteria and service work related to collegiality and academic citizenship, demonstrating that these activities contribute to the “leaky pipeline” phenomenon by taking time away from traditionally recognized activities like research, publishing, and teaching.