Shedding Light on Restorative Spaces and Faculty Well-Being

The nature of academic work has changed dramatically in recent decades, resulting in part in decreased well-being among faculty. In this article, we discuss these changes and their effects, with a focus on coping through restorative spaces. While faculty members may frequently conceal their restorative spaces in fear of how our time spent in them may be criticized, we seek to shed light on this important coping tool through sharing six unique restorative space narratives. Drawing from these vignettes, we encourage faculty members to share their own stories of restoration in their academic communities to counter the busyness narrative that pervades many academic spaces, and we call on colleges and universities to acknowledge and support the creation of restorative spaces for academics within their institutions.