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Articles

Vol. 2 No. 3 (2022): Autoethnography in online doctoral education

Surviving institutional racism as a Chinese female in UK higher education

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21428/8c225f6e.da3e28ac
Submitted
9 August 2026
Published
15-08-2026

Abstract

This autoethnography examines how my experience of microaggression, covert and overt racism is a result of a systemic failure to tackle racism in one particular UK university. In this paper, I reflect on my journey from being a student to a senior-junior staff struggling to break the glass ceiling to finally now a junior-senior staff in Higher Education. I have been through stages of being hopeful, defeated, fighting back and eventually being hopeful again. I hope my survival can help other non-white women to get a better understanding that some of our experiences are not because of who we are, but rather the system in which we are locked in.

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