Cracking the Cracked-Up System: Shared Stories from Interstage Academic Feminist Collaboration

Abstract The concept of “cracking the cracked-up system” was introduced in a 2018 National Communication Association (NCA) convention panel. The panel’s purpose was to bring voices together and validate both presenters’ and members’ experiences in higher education. Several women have contributed to the conversation across the years, and these conversations have crafted sustained interstage feminist academic collaboration. In this layered account, the narratives include mental health, burnout, and institutional support for women in academia who, after being socialized into the culture of academia during graduate school, struggle with the pressure to be the traditional ideal academic worker. Our narratives demonstrate how interstage feminist academic collaboration can serve as a support system given the “cracked-up” nature of the university.