Making it Work: A Survey by The Fashion Studies Journal
The inspiration for our “Making it Work” survey was born of both curiosity and desperation: curiosity about the people who make up our very interdisciplinary, global field and desperation to know how these individuals were managing to piece together careers and making financial ends meet. The difficulties we encountered finding time just to build the survey—in stolen moments between side gigs, long commutes, conference presentations, parenting, and adjunct teaching—were already a testament to the challenges of forging a viable career path in a field that, even forty years on, is still seeking legitimacy.
We (the desperately curious survey designers: Lauren, Laura, and FSJ editors emeriti Kim and Tessa) suspected others might be feeling similarly overworked and insecure, but there were too few opportunities to share, strategize, and commiserate. The cutthroat neoliberal academic model ensured that we viewed one another more as competition than as resources. When we did pitch the idea of building a survey that would pull the curtain back on academic fashion labor and finances, eyebrows were raised and feathers were ruffled. Transparency can be radical and uncomfortable, especially within a field as crowded and competitive as fashion studies. Nevertheless, we persevered as much out of a sense of duty (Who else was going to ask these questions?!) as abject fear (Is there a future for us?!), and perhaps a healthy dose of stupidity (Would this survey come back to bite us during tenure reviews and job interviews?!).
In designing the survey, we prioritized aggregating hard data while giving the chance for participants to elaborate on their responses through open-ended questions. Though of course the survey had to be anonymous, we wanted to know the stories behind the numbers. We were hungry for insight into our institutions, pocketbooks, hearts, and minds.
Click here to download and read the survey!
When we hit publish, we felt a rush of excitement and trepidation. Would anyone actually want to take this survey? And, more importantly, would they feel safe sharing such intimate details with us? The answer to these questions was a resounding and unequivocal yes. Over the last three years, 400 people and counting have taken our survey. In addition to attesting to the growth of our field over the last decade, the response also underscored the global reach of fashion studies and its interdisciplinarity. We are so grateful that so many of you trusted us with your truths.
This document, compiled lovingly by Olivia, is the cornerstone of our Fall 2020 content, introducing you to our new identity as a fashion studies publication dedicated to pushing things forward. We have lots more to come as our editors and invited contributors share how the survey data speaks to them about equity, precarity, and the need for transparency in our field. If you have thoughts, we’d love to hear them, whether that’s in the form of a DM, an email to info@fashionstudiesjournal.org, or a pitch for a written reflection of your own if reading the survey data sparks an idea for you. Thank you again to everyone who responded. Let’s keep the conversation going.
You can download and read the survey by clicking on the image to the right. Alternately, you can engage with the survey on Issuu.com.
