Navigating the emotional landscapes of the Neoliberal University and its challengers

The growing neoliberalization, commercialization and corporatization of academia by which many universities at a global level adopt market-driven models put many scholars at risk and pressure them to be increasingly competitive, become successful and efficient fundraisers whilst being involved in growing amounts of bureaucratic tasks, produce quantifiable and high-ranking results, and follow the logics of supply and demand (Taylor & Lahad, 2018). This neoliberal climate produces feelings of isolation, exclusion, precariousness, failure, helplessness and frustration which should be taken seriously, and firmly challenged through a collective and politicized response. Differently from other recent work on neoliberal academia (Gill, 2009; Ball, 2003; Whelan, 2015; Smyth, 2017), Taylor and Lahad’s collection (2018) gives a particular emphasis to the role of emotions in academia and suggests feminist strategies of resistance against (or escape from) the increasingly corporate structures of contemporary university; but no mention is made of the positive feelings associated with being an academic. Drawing on the analysis of some of these contributions, this paper critically reflects on how it feels today to be an academic in higher education but also—and perhaps primarily—on how it feels to interpret such critical contributions, which ultimately seem to suggest only partial solutions or no solutions at all. Besides shedding light on some of the positive feelings associated with being an academic (such as: pleasure, satisfaction, gratification, altruism, etc.), it provocatively raises and discusses the following question: if we are unhappy with current measurement criteria to define academic success, is failing the neoliberal model of success a real unsuccess? References 1. Ball, S. J. (2003) 'The teacher's soul and the terrors of performativity'. Journal of Education Policy 18(2): 215–28. 2. Gill, R. (2009) Breaking the silence: The hidden injuries of neo-liberal academia in Flood,R. & Gill,R. (Eds.) Secrecy and Silence in the Research Process: Feminist Reflections. London: Routledge. 3. Smyth, J. (2017) The Toxic University: Zombie Leadership, Academic Rock Stars and Neoliberal Ideology, Palgrave Macmillan. 4. Taylor, Y., & Lahad, K. (Eds.). (2018). Feeling academic in the neoliberal university: Feminist flights, fights and failures. Springer. 5. Whelan, A. (2015). Academic critique of neoliberal academia, in Sites: a journal of social anthropology and cultural studies, 12 (1), 130-152.