Abstract
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To date there has been little attempt by organisational scholars working in the constructionist tradition to fuse analysis of how academic careers unfold with an understanding of the identity challenges faced by non-white immigrants. By looking at covering, this paper simultaneously addresses both issues. The primary aim of the paper is to use covering to investigate how felt pressure to conform identities to dominant cultural norms is acceded to, on the one hand, and resisted on the other hand. To the extent that covering is a technique of identity work, analysis of this practice taps into wider theoretical issues associated with constructing and maintaining identities within organisations. It is particularly well-suited to examining how identities are established and maintained at the interstices between bases of affiliation such as religion and ethnicity, where one identity element can be downplayed in favour of another.