This article examines the institutional cultures and contradictions surrounding public-facing academic work in UK universities, particularly in regard to the backlash and harm experienced by those engaging in public discourse. Drawing on survey responses and interviews with academics, professional services and senior management, and speaker accounts from a series of public events, we interrogate how the labour of public academia is simultaneously mandated, quantified, individualised and institutionally marginalised. We evidence the persistent (under)valuing of public academia both in material terms (time, workload, resourcing) and symbolic terms (prestige, legitimacy) within a sector shaped by conflicting institutional logics. This double bind enables universities to promote researcher visibility while absolving themselves of accountability for the vulnerabilities of public exposure. Until public-facing work is taken seriously as work, it will fall outside of institutional frameworks for workplace health and safety, leaving individuals to bear the consequences unsupported. This article contributes to emerging scholarship on the politics of academic visibility and safety in the context of intensified demands for public engagement.
Clancy et al. (Sat,) studied this question.