Academic Labor in the Age of Anxiety: Autoethnography Matters. (August 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Foster, Elissa
• Other Names: Poulos Christopher N. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Cultural studies, critical methodologies. Volume 17:Number 4(2017:Aug.)
• Page Start: 320
• Page End: 326
• Publication Date: 2017-08
• Subjects: neoliberalism -- pedagogy -- scholarship -- resistance; Culture -- Research -- Periodicals; Popular culture -- Research -- Periodicals; 306.05
• DOI: 10.1177/1532708617706124
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1532-7086

Abstract

In this autoethnographic essay, I reflect on three spheres of academic work—program administration, teaching, and scholarship—and find evidence of the effects of neoliberalism in each sphere of practice. Specifically, I articulate the prevailing emotional experience of my academic work as anxiety, which is a consequence of internalizing the construction of students-as-consumers and responding uncritically to the demands of academic organizations that require my compliance and neutrality. To the extent that academic freedom is a reward afforded to those with tenure, my essay argues that the cost of leading a privileged academic life is that we use our privilege to question the status quo, particularly in our own institutions of higher education.