Short Abstract:

Using reflective practice to challenge cultural conceptions in science regarding emotional expression. Feeling Rules in undergraduate biology will guide individual and group reflections to collectively explore “the practices, strategies, and spaces where affective empowerment might be possible."

Long Abstract:

How does science culture in higher education perpetuate Eurocentric norms regarding emotional expression? The social factors that govern what is “appropriate” to feel in a given situation are referred to as Feeling Rules (Hochschild, 1979) and what is “appropriate” emotional expression as Display Rules (Ekman, 1993). These emotion politics (Shields, 2005) provide an avenue through which dominant cultures establish “correct and desirable” behavior within social interactions as a form of social policing and control. Affective decolonization advocates call for the dismantling of colonial affective practices in academia (i.e., pedagogy, research, and knowledge production) that maintain systemic structures of power and oppression (Zembylas, 2023). Such structures are theoretically linked to the development of self-hate and division, ultimately creating a negative impact on student mental health and well-being (Camangian & Cariaga, 2022).

So what would the disruption of emotion politics look like in the context of a key stage of the socialization process in science - university coursework? In this interactive workshop, we invite participants to engage in a forum of social accountability for the collaborative contribution to emotions scientists activate as instructors, mentors, and advisors with students in higher education settings (Campbell, 1994; Boler, 1999), and we will consider how we maintain affective policing in science culture that impacts student well-being and success. Reflective practice is an evidence-based strategy found to help professionals generate new perspectives, discover new solutions, and challenge current cultural conceptions (Yip, 2006; Iqbal, 2017). Therefore, we will briefly present our research on Feeling Rules in U.S. undergraduate biology and then facilitate individual and group reflection activities (Iqbal, 2017).

With this workshop, we aim to cultivate emotional freedom, minimize emotional suffering, and “identify the practices, strategies, and spaces where affective empowerment might be possible” (Zembylas, 2007) in undergraduate science.