Paradox, power and positionality: contradictions in research on sustainable academic careers

Abstract

This essay examines five paradoxes shaping academic life for disabled scholars: recognition without redistribution, visibility and exposure, meritocracy and structural privilege, resilience and rest, and autonomy and interdependence. Drawing on my lived experience as a neurodivergent, home-based researcher navigating chronic illness and framed by sustainable career ecosystem theory, I show how these paradoxes expose enduring gaps between inclusive rhetoric and everyday academic practice. The escalating financial crisis in higher education across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States further reveals the fragility of accessibility gains and growing precarity in academic employment. Using paradox as both lens and method, this essay demonstrates how disabled scholars’ experiences spotlight systemic vulnerabilities and argues that structural redesign, rather than individual accommodation, is essential for equitable academic futures.