Introduction to the Forum by the editors.Introduzione al Forum dei curatori

Heatherington, Tracey

Zerilli, Filippo M.

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Tracey Heatherington

Filippo M. Zerilli

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2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90FORUMStudent-led demonstration, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, February 4, 2015. Overpass Light Brigade, Joe Bruskyphotographer. Source: overpasslightbrigade.org/love-light-for-uw-fight-the-cuts/.Anthropologists in/of the neoliberal academyEdited by Tracey HEATHERINGTON & Filippo M. ZERILLIContributions ofCris SHORE & Susan WRIGHT, Vintilă MIHĂILESCU, Sarah GREEN, Gabriela VARGAS-CETINA&  Steffan Igor AYORA-DIAZ,  Tracey HEATHERINGTON,  Dimitris DALAKOGLOU,  Noelle MOLÉLISTON, Susana NAROTZKY, Jaro STACUL, Meredith WELCH-DEVINE, Jon P. MITCHELL.This work is licensed under the Creative Commons © TRACEY HEATHERINGTON, FILIPPO M. ZERILLI (EDS)Anthropologists in/of the Neoliberal Academy2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90.ISSN: 2239-625X – DOI: 10.7340/anuac2239-625X-243742 ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN/OF THE NEOLIBERAL ACADEMYIntroductionTracey HEATHERINGTONUniversity of Wisconsin MilwaukeeFilippo M. ZERILLIUiniversity of CagliariThe university, which has long remained one of the most conservative institutionalmodels, has undergone dramatic transformations in recent years. This is true worldwi-de, notably due to reforms of the public sector that have intensified the commoditiza-tion of academic life, activities, roles and “products”. The modality and outcome ofthis process is not everywhere the same, as Sarah Green plainly puts it in her contribu-tion to this Forum. In fact,  this collection of short commentaries originated with thesimple idea that while the neoliberalization of the university is a global trend that stron-gly impacts across different academic systems, it also has some specific, local featuresthat influence the daily work and lives of students, researchers, teachers and admini-strators in particular ways. Even within a given national context shaped by the verysame reforms and policies, we might observe specific articulations resulting from thevarious ways in which policy changes are introduced and managed, at times accommo-dated but sometimes resisted, subverted, or challenged by different subjects accordingto their visions of the university’s purpose and meaning in society as well as their ownaspired  roles.  From this  perspective,  this  Forum intends  to  explore  how significantchanges are actually occurring “on the ground”, as it were, by comparing the immedia-te experiences of colleagues working in a variety of academic roles and settings. Al-though some of the authors invited to participate in the Forum have produced signifi-cant expert contributions to the field of audit culture and education1, our intention isnot to collect new research per se but instead, to gather fresh thoughts and insights byreflecting on current events and personal observations related to the changing institutio-nal contexts in which different anthropologists are embedded.In this Forum we present contributions related to university settings in various coun-tries, including Australia and New Zealand, Romania, Denmark, Greece, Finland, Me-xico, US, Holland, Spain, Canada and the UK. While this selection of cases obviouslycannot offer a geographically comprehensive picture of what is happening at global le-1. This is an expanding field of research in anthropology, shaped by the influential essay of Cris Shoreand Susan Wright (1999) and a seminal collection edited by Marilyn Strathern (2000).2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90TRACEY HEATHERINGTON, FILIPPO M. ZERILLI (EDS) 43vel, we seek to enlarge the sphere of critical and provocative conversations about emer-ging models of higher education across national contexts. In their introduction to a re-cent volume on neoliberalism in higher education, Boone Shear and Susan Brin Hyattestablish  «the university as an important location of hegemonic struggle» (2015: 3),and explore how focused ethnographic research and analysis can help imagine more po-sitive transformations going forward. We, too, aim to stimulate reflection on the chan-ging role of the university today in concrete, empirical, ideally ethnographic terms. Inassembling this set of commentaries, however, we asked our contributors for relativelyinformal, timely and accessible contributions that can make our perspectives and con-cerns from inside the academy easier to share with the general public. The immediate,thoughtful and even passionate responses we received within a very short timeframehave highlighted just how imperative a topic this is.Our Forum opens up with a paper by Cris Shore and Sue Wright whose analysis fra-mes and resonates with many other contributions here, and particularly with Jon Mit-chell’s account of the making of academic subjectivities. Drawing on years of systema-tic research within different university contexts, Shore and Wright make clear that theneoliberal model is not only transforming the role of the university in society, but alsocreating new kind of subjects whose practices and ethos are structured by an emergingentrepreneurial culture taking root at the heart of the academy. Dimtris Dalakoglouconsiders how neoliberal shifts promote entrepreneurial strategies and self-interestedbehaviour in academics. Exploring the etymology of idiocy, he insists it is crucial to re-cognize and challenge the actions of the many “idiots” now circulating in academia,that is, those simply acting according to selfish interests. Unfortunately, selfish or “idio-tic” behaviour is often disguised and not always easy to identify as such, especially con-sidering that the university is traditionally populated by “semi-scholars”, as formulatedby Arnold van Gennep in his inimitable, sardonic description of academic life (vanGennep 1911). Dalakoglou asks us to take sides, and reassert the moral ethos of com-mon good. In different ways, both Vintilă Mihăilescu for Romania and Jon Mitchell for UKsuggest how difficult it is escaping from the audit regime and its trivial, apparently un-questionable truths. How could one argue against “teaching excellence” and “best prac-tices”, or to refuse to submit to “international standards”? However, as their contribu-tions and others show, behind such apparently non-negotiable concepts and values, the-re exists considerable discretion. Paradoxically, assuming what is taken for granted andnaturalized as signs of merit might ultimately produce nefarious social and political im-pacts to research and teaching, two essential activities of university professionals thatare currently undergoing a process of unnecessary and unwanted separation. Yet SarahGreen reminds us that despite many haunting parallels and convergences across cases,we should remain attuned to the heterogeneity of neoliberal processes. Examining herexperiences in the UK and Finland comparatively, she reflects that despite many negati-ve impacts associated with new audit cultures, budget cuts, and moves toward privatiza-2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-9044 ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN/OF THE NEOLIBERAL ACADEMYtion in each case, there was no single, inevitable path toward a specific neoliberal mo-del. Rather, there may be unexpected opportunities to shape the changing university inpositive directions, particularly in national contexts where the public recognizes the va-lue of higher education as a benefit to society.The exploration of alternative moral frames for academic work running through the-se commentaries indeed suggests broad-based challenges to the ethos of neoliberalism.This gives some insight into emerging debates and conflicts around educational reform.Green’s account of university downsizing in liberal Finland resonates with Tracey Hea-therington’s discussion of Wisconsin, but the latter emphasizes a clash in cultural va-lues around education, and an evolving social mobilization to protect the core values ofthe  university.  Similarly,  Gabriela  Vargas-Cetina  and  Igor  Ayora-Diaz  consider  thetransformation of their own distinguished institution from a research-driven universityinto a “public service” university driven by market values. These deep changes to hi-gher education are determined not only by the Mexican government, but also mandatedby international agencies. They are taking place against an increasingly politicized bac-kdrop of Oaxacan resistance to general educational reform. Where student mobiliza-tions against educational reforms have taken place across Europe in response to austeri-ty measures, these two cases illustrate the growing stakes for teachers and faculty.The current transformation of the academic landscape, notably in UK and US, in-cludes growing symbolic and financial privileges accorded to STEM fields (Science,Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). As Shore and Wright, Heatherington, Na-rotzky, and Welch-Devine each show, this has serious consequences for what are some-times perceived as less “relevant” or marginal disciplines in the Arts, Humanities andSocial Sciences. In this regard, the recent diminishing number of faculty in social anth-ropology in Italy is also telling (Palumbo 2013). Noelle Molé Liston, Meredith Welch-Devine, and Tracey Heatherington all discuss the problem of growing precarity fromdifferent subject positions in the US context. While Molé Liston and Welch-Devine oc-cupy untenured positions outside of anthropology departments, Heatherington has wit-nessed the loss of tenure guarantees as well as challenges to academic freedom within astate university system. Both Welch-Devine and Heatherington also play complex dualroles as research faculty and administrators advocating for graduate programs that mustsurvive in the context of the audit regime. In fact, the significance of neoliberal shiftsfor students remains an important concern for many of us. Susana Narotzky, MeredithWelch-Devine and Jaro Stacul offer three different national perspectives upon the re-making of academic subjectivities among students, who often have no choice but to de-dicate more attention to working off campus than to their studies. Here we see how theincreasing precarity of faculty and staff is matched by increasing precarity and debt forstudents, affecting the quality of their training in our discipline and consequently, thediscipline itself.2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90TRACEY HEATHERINGTON, FILIPPO M. ZERILLI (EDS) 45It is our hope that this Forum will establish a platform to host and discuss futurecontributions on this theme and above all, to move together toward a coalition in favourof the university as we think it should be. In this, we draw inspiration from the collea-gues  who established the  Overpass  Light  Brigade in  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin2.  Since2011, this alliance for creative activism has continued to champion public educationand bring visibility to progressive causes, by lighting up signs above the highways andpublic  spaces.  Over the past  five years they have forged a network that  spans wellbeyond the state, and reminded us how powerful our words, ideas and collective actionscan be. While current policy discourses may tend to reinforce the hegemony of neoli-beralism, both Tim Ingold (2016) and Tracey Heatherington (this Forum) recognizeexpanding local movements to reclaim the model of the public university. If, as Tho-mas  Docherty  recently  argued  (2015:  1),  «there  is  a  war  on  the  future  of  theuniversity» worldwide, then it is essential that we become engaged, take sides, and de-cide actively what kind of university we do stand for.REFERENCESDocherty, Thomas, 2015, Universities at War, London, Sage. Ingold, Tim, 2016, Reclaiming the University of Aberdeen, Guest Post by Professor TimothyIngold,  University  of  Aberdeen,  http://cdbu.org.uk/reclaiming-the-university-of-aber-deen/ (accessed on 19 June 2016).Palumbo, Berardino, 2013, Messages in a bottle. Etnografia e autoetnografia del campo accade-mico antropologico in Italia, La Ricerca Folklorica, 67-68: 169-194.Shear, Boone W., Susan Brin Hyatt, 2015, Introduction: Higher education, engaged anthropo-logy and hegemonic struggle, in Learning under neoliberalism: Ethnographies of gover-nance in higher education, Susan Brin Hyatt, Boone W. Shear, Susan Wright, eds, NewYork and Oxford, Berghahn: 1-29.Shore, Cris, Susan Wright, 1999, Audit Culture and Anthropology: Neo-Liberalism in BritishHigher Education, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 5, 4: 557-575. Strathern, Marilyn, ed, 2000,  Audit cultures: Anthropological studies in accountability, ethicsand the Academy, London and New York, Routledge.Van Gennep, Arnold, 1911,  Les Demi-Savants. Esthétique comparée. Linguistique. Pathologievégétale. Biologie. Ethnographie. Folklore. Epigraphie. Anthropométrie. Critique Littérai-re. La synthèse, Paris, Mercure de France.2. See http://overpasslightbrigade.org.2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90

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