Autoethnographies from the Neoliberal Academy is a supremely timely book on how to work in and against neoliberal universities from within the academy. Utilising radical dazzling storytelling techniques across a variety of media to problematise conventional academic discourses, this book points the way for future academic writing and knowledge as modally and spatially liberatory more impactful and more relevant than conventional academic discourse storytelling should be the twenty-first centurys version of the Idea of the University.
Dr Kate Aughterson, Principal Lecturer in Literature, University of Brighton
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIES FROM THE NEOLIBERAL ACADEMY
The shift to a neoliberal agenda has, for many academics, intensified the pressure and undermined the pleasure that their work can and does bring. This book contains stories from a range of autoethnographers seeking to challenge traditional academic discourse by providing personal and evocative writings that detail moments of profound transformation and change.
The book focuses on the experiences of one academic and the stories that her dialogues with other autoethnographers generated in response to the neoliberal shift in higher education. Chapters use a variety of genres to provide an innovative text that identifies strategies to challenge neoliberal governance. Autoethnography is as a methodology that can be used as form of resistance to this cultural shift by exploring effects on individual academic and personal lives. The stories are necessarily emotional, personal, important. It is hoped that they will promote other ways of navigating higher education that do not align with neoliberalism and instead, offer more holistic and human ways of being an academic.
This book highlights the impact of neoliberalism on academics freedom to teach and think freely. With 40% of academics in the UK considering other forms of employment, this book will be of interest to existing and future academics who want to survive the new environment and maintain their motivation and passion for academic life.
Jess Moriarty is a principal lecturer at the University of Brighton, where she is course leader on the Creative Writing MA. Jess works on engaging students in community projects and using innovative and personal writing to challenge traditional academic discourse. She is focused on developing her students confidence with their creativity and writing.
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIES FROM THE NEOLIBERAL ACADEMY
Rewilding, Writing and Resistance in Higher Education
Edited by Jess Moriarty
With Ross Adamson, Nicola Ashmore, Susan Diab, Jane Fox, Jackie Goode, Alec Grant, Mike Hayler, Bengt Karlsson, Trude Klevan, Vanessa Marr, Christina Reading and Bryn Tales
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2020 selection and editorial matter, Jess Moriarty; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Jess Moriarty to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-8153-7110-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-8153-7112-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-3512-4757-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex Covantage, LLC
Note from the author: I have tried to recreate events, locales and conversations from my memories of them. In order to maintain anonymity I have changed the names of individuals and placesand may have changed some identifying characteristics and details such as physical properties, occupations and places of residence.
For Alfie, Arla, Paul and Reilly. Always.
CONTENTS
Jess Moriarty
SCENE 1
Jess Moriarty
Jess Moriarty and Jane Fox
Jess Moriarty and Mike Hayler
Christina Reading and Jess Moriarty
Christina Reading and Jess Moriarty
SCENE 2
Jess Moriarty
Jess Moriarty and Vanessa Marr
Jess Moriarty and Nicola Ashmore
SCENE 3
Jess Moriarty
Trude Klevan, Bengt Karlsson and Alec Grant
Jackie Goode and Jess Moriarty
Bryn Tales and Jess Moriarty
Susan Diab and Jess Moriarty
SCENE 4
Jess Moriarty
Jess Moriarty and Ross Adamson
SCENE 5
Jess Moriarty
Jess Moriarty
Ross Adamson is a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton. He teaches digital storytelling, documentary filmmaking and other creative non-fiction practices on undergraduate media studies and creative writing degrees. He is completing a doctorate in education at Bournemouth University on undergraduates experiences of documentary filmmaking. Drawing on narrative hermeneutics, he has written eight short stories of these experiences illustrating the way students navigate the ethical and practical encounters in documentary filmmaking. He is also pursuing his own filmmaking practice with a current project on the life of an extraordinary woman who set up a medieval fayre in Devon in the 1970s and a dance company for the over-60s in Sussex over 40 years later.
Nicola Ashmore is a senior lecturer in the history of art and design at the University of Brighton. Her research interests focus on artistic interventions and curatorial practice, notably the means through which this can leverage collaborative activism. She has made use of film documentary and digital technology as methodologies, investigating museum practices, community artists and collaborative practices. Her post-doctoral research focuses on remakings of Picassos Guernica in the 21st century. Ashmores pedagogic research interests are on the creative development of students through place-based work. This began in 20092010 working in collaboration and across disciplines with Dr Jess Moriarty.
Susan Diab is an artist (sculptor), writer and senior lecturer on the fine art critical practice BA(Hons) course at the University of Brighton. She set up and is responsible for teaching and coordinating the Student Fine Art Placement Scheme. She has a studio at APEC Artist Studios in Hove, of which she was a founder member in 2004. She has worked across a range of contexts with public art galleries mainly in the Southeast of England, including residencies, within gallery education and as an arts outreach facilitator. A highly experienced artist mentor, she worked for several years as an artist adviser for the ARC scheme set up by Aspex Gallery in Portsmouth and currently is a mentoring tutor on the MA in fine art at Brighton. In 2019, she will be Artist-in-Residence for In Control by Design with the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Brain Networks Dynamics Unit of Oxford University, working on developing wearable objects for negotiating the symptoms of Parkinsons Disease.