Neoliberal dread and the persistence of teaching

Abstract

This article argues that it is only possible to teach without dread today if one does not value academic freedom. For these people, it is perfectly acceptable to be told what course they will teach, the content of those courses, and the modality of instruction. If one does not care about such things, then neoliberal academe with regard to teaching is not a house of dread. But for those who do not want to be told how to teach their course; who want to have a strong role in the shape of the curriculum; who want the ability to choose their preferred modality of instruction; and want to have a reasonable amount of choice in what they teach; for these people, higher education today has become and is a house of teaching dread. The persistence of teaching under such conditions can only be explained by an increase in neurotic dread in academe.

Keywords:

• Neoliberalism
• dread
• higher education
• academic freedom
• pandemic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Here is the full line: “But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, let him be your dread” (The Book of Isaiah, 1977, 8, 13, 832).

2 The general subject of the politics of emotion in academe is not widely discussed in the scholarly literature of higher education. However, the emotional world created within higher education is an important aspect of academic life. For an introduction to this topic, see Bloch (2012) and Di Leo (2012, 33–42; 2013b).

3 The lyrics to Bowie’s “It’s No Game, Part 1” includes the line, “To be insulted by these fascists, It’s so degrading, and it’s no game.” This is fodder for the related notion that conceived as a game, higher education under neoliberalism is insulting, degrading, and fascist, which are all characteristics consistent with the rise of neoliberal dread.

4 US President Joseph Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached a deal on May 27, 2023 to suspend the nation’s debt limit until January 2025. It allows the US government to keep borrowing money so that it can pay its bills. On the debt-ceiling deal and its implications, see Tankersley (2023). See also Di Leo et al. (2018), for accounts of how debt underwrites so many of the institutions and practices that circumscribe our lives.

5 Wells said, “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe” (Wells, 1921, 1100).

6 See Di Leo (2013a), for a development of the notion of the docile subjects of neoliberal academe.

7 To be clear, there is no textbook called How to be a Docile Subject in Higher Education. However, there is an anti-textbook of sorts on this topic, namely Di Leo (2013a): two of the major theses of it are (1) neoliberalism threatens to turn academics into docile subjects (xvii–xviii) and (2) docile academic subjects are a bad thing (xviii–xix).

8 I’m thinking here of McDonalds, and the term McDonaldization that George Ritzer (1993) uses to refer to the global business practices of the fast-food chain McDonalds. McDonaldization is a good example of a common form of neoliberalism. As a testament to the staying power of this version of neoliberalism, Ritzer’s book is now in a tenth edition (Ritzer, 2020), complete with a new subtitle.

9 Sam Joeckel, an English professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida, had his contract terminated for teaching about racial justice. His contract was terminated after an accusation that his lessons on racial justice were “indoctrinating” students. See Gans (2023).

10 A bill filed in the Texas Senate in March of 2023 would prohibit public colleges and universities from awarding tenure to professors hired after September 2023. Another bill filed in Texas Senate in March of 2023 would prohibit faculty from teaching that any race, ethnicity, sex or political belief is “inherently superior to another.” See McGee (2023) regarding bills filed aimed at ending tenure and the teaching of critical race theory.

11 The Great Resignation, alternately called “The Big Quit” and “The Great Reshuffle” began during the Covid-19 pandemic. In early 2021, an economic trend was noted where high numbers of employees voluntarily resigned from their jobs. As of late 2022, the Great Resignation was still regarded as ongoing. Though there has been some debate as to the number of staff and faculty that quit higher education during the pandemic, there is general consensus that the numbers here are higher than before the pandemic. See, for example, Flaherty (2022), and Massa and Conley (2022).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeffrey R. Di Leo

Jeffrey R. Di Leo is Professor of English and Philosophy at the University of Houston-Victoria. He is editor and founder of the critical theory journal symplokē, editor of the American Book Review, and Executive Director of the Society for Critical Exchange and its Winter Theory Institute. His books include Academe Degree Zero: Reconsidering the Politics of Higher Education (2012), Neoliberalism, Education, and Terrorism: Contemporary Dialogues (2013, with Henry Giroux, Kenneth Saltman, and Sophia McClennen), Corporate Humanities in Higher Education: Moving Beyond the Neoliberal Academy (2013), Higher Education under Late Capitalism: Identity, Conduct and the Neoliberal Condition (2017), Catastrophe and Higher Education: Neoliberalism, Theory, and the Future of the Humanities (2020), and, most recently, Selling the Humanities (2023).