International Women’s Day 2023: Associate Professor Shameem Black

Associate Professor Shameem Black is a research fellow in the Department of Gender, Media and Cultural Studies at the School of Culture, History & Language, ANU College of Asia Pacific. Her work centres around an interdisciplinary analysis of globalisation, cross-cultural interactions, and gender representation in modern media.

In this interview, Associate Professor Black shares insights on her multifaceted career in academia, as well as her experiences juggling parenthood with her roles as a researcher, teacher, and mother.

What inspired you to pursue a career in academia, and how did you get started?

I'm hopeless at anything else! It's a bit like a calling. I knew I wanted to be in a profession where you can grapple with big and complex ideas, develop meaningful ways of understanding the world, and wear jeans if you want to.

What are some of the most exciting research projects you've worked on, and what impact do you hope they will have on society?

I've just finished up a book on the cultural politics of yoga, which I use as a lens to examine changing ideas of India. Tracing yoga across texts and countries has led me to piece together the dots connecting yoga murder mysteries, India's tax code, poetry, and yoga pants. I love researching in this way because it's a powerful method to show how big questions about national identity, self-help capitalism, and the search for cultural recognition play out in concrete, everyday ways around us.

What are some of the most important lessons you've learned throughout your career, and how have they helped you to succeed as a woman in academia?

The things you think are going to work against you may turn out to be the things that help you grow the most. When I took time off to raise young kids, for example, I worried because I wasn't working all the time. But because of becoming a parent, my teaching is more playful, my research is more creative, and my meetings are more efficient. Plus, as my gender students can tell you, nobody knows Gramscian hegemony like a parent.

What advice do you have for young women who are interested in pursuing a career in academia?

Let your research be driven by a real question that matters to you. This unique purpose is not only what can keep you going in the marathon of academia, but it can also shed light on where the university needs to change to become a more equitable and expansive place. Also, yoga is not the answer to structural problems of gender inequality, capitalist precarity, and health care crisis, but it is still an amazing way to get a clearer perspective on the universe.