Confronting academic snobbery - Academic snobbery strategies and varieties

Oct 15, 2026

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Australian academic review article examining how academic snobbery manifests across universities, involving academics, staff, students, and the public. It explains damaging impacts on morale, research, and public image, then uses multiple illustrative stories to show different forms, including dismissive remarks, exclusion, misrecognition, and condescension toward disciplines or lower-status groups. It also discusses approaches to expose and oppose snobbery, clarifying how it can resemble other discriminatory behaviors.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

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Varieties of academic snobbery

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A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W Confronting academic snobbery Brian Martin & Majken Jul Sørensen University of Wollongong Snobbery in academia can involve academics, general staff, students and members of the public, and can be based on degrees, disciplines, cliques and other categories. Though snobbery is seldom treated as a significant issue, it can have damaging effects on morale, research and public image. Strategies against snobbery include avoidance, private feedback, formal complaints and public challenges. Introduction Story 1: Academic speaking to a member of the public: ‘What would you know about it?’Story 2: A prominent researcher visited a university to give a public lecture. When a local teacher dared to ask a question, the visitor responded, ‘That was the wrong question, from the wrong person, at the wrong time. Better luck next time.’ It is not unusual to hear people who have encountered academics and the university environment telling about the scorn coming down at them from above. Non-academics may feel what they say is considered of little value just because they don’t know the right jargon or have a degree. When their questions are dismissed without serious consideration, they may think: Are my questions stupid? or Why won’t the academics answer? Many undergraduates find that their opinions are not respected by their teachers. Research students feel overlooked when their supervisors cannot remember their names or don’t greet them when they meet in the corridor. Going to international conferences in their discipline to present a paper for the first time, doctoral students might encounter an inner circle of highly regarded professors who do not look in their direction, and hardly ever bother to introduce themselves if they happen to end up next to them in the lunch queue.Academics in the social sciences or humanities who work together with natural scientists soon realise that what they are doing is not considered real science, just as sociologists using qualitative methods are treated as less scientific than those who use statistics. Scholars on short-term appointments are potential targets of academic snobbery from those with permanent jobs (DeSantis, 2011) . In this article, the authors introduce the topic of academic snobbery, using stories to illustrate its different forms.The authors’ special interest is in the seldom-investigated challenge of how to expose and oppose academic snobbery. Varieties of academic snobbery Story 3: A junior academic who could find only short-term work felt she was invisible. Her head of school did not respond to her emails. When others entered a room, they were greeted, but she was ignored. Then, one day, she brought a friend, a famous local figure, to give a seminar. For a change, everyone said hello to her, and her head replied to her latest email. However, within a couple of weeks she was invisible again. Story 4: At a university, academics met to discuss a planned relocation of their organisational units within a common 64 Confronting academic snobbery Brian Martin & Majken Jul Sørensen vol. 56, no. 2, 2014 A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W building, which had a pompous main entrance. The representative of one of the social sciences, who obviously considered his discipline superior to the others’, said: ‘We can’t accept any proposal where we will be located away from the main entrance. That entrance is part of our brand.’Story 5: A group of junior academics developed a new research area. Those in mainstream disciplines ignored the junior academics and their research – until the group managed to secure a very large research grant. Suddenly, everyone was eager to cooperate with them and went to great lengths to make their own research projects include a perspective on the area. Story 6: At a seminar, the head of a research institute was presenting his latest research. A PhD stude

FAQs

What harms can academic snobbery cause in universities?

Academic snobbery can damage morale, research, and public image, even though it is often treated as insignificant.

How do the stories illustrate different forms of academic snobbery?

They show snobbery through dismissive comments, ignoring people, denying questions serious consideration, excluding junior researchers, and condescending behavior toward individuals or disciplines.

What strategies does the article suggest to expose and oppose academic snobbery?

Strategies include avoidance, private feedback, formal complaints, and public challenges.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Aldword