Chapter 10: The Personal Is Political: Feminist Resistance to Neoliberalism within Academia

Neoliberal beliefs, ideals, and practices increasingly infringe on academic research, writing, and teaching. Higher education faculty are increasingly feeling the effects of neoliberalism; universities, in general, are becoming corporatized, with a subsequent increased commitment to profit, power, and efficiency (Giroux, 2002). Increasingly, higher education faculty are expected to secure privatized monies for research, such as grants; colleges and universities are offering fewer tenure-track faculty positions and are instead offering more part-time work in order to save money; and many state institutions are increasing class size due to budget cuts (Davies & Bansel, 2007; Giroux, 2002; Mohanty, 2003). I argue that feminist theories and pedagogies should be considered and utilized by those scholars interested in resisting neoliberalism within the higher education classroom, and within academia in general. This chapter examines my uses of feminism as a graduate student, researcher, undergraduate instructor, and activist. As an academic who is often doubly marginalized because of my commitments to feminism and qualitative research, I share my experiences in order to open up future possibilities of critical resistance. After I explain the encroachment of neoliberalism within the context of my particular university and the ways in which neoliberalism is consequently internalized by my students, I share three ways in which I utilize feminism in order to resist and subvert the neoliberalization of academia. First, I discuss feminist pedagogy and describe how I use it in the undergraduate classes that I teach. I suggest that instructors challenge neoliberalism within the classroom by focusing on structural critiques of racism, sexism, and classism. I also illustrate how the use of collaboration and problem posing education can be used to challenge competitive, neoliberal models of pedagogy and assessment (Freire, 1970; hooks, 1994, 2003). Second, I discuss the personal and political reasoning behind my decision to conduct feminist, queer, qualitative research. I describe how I use my research to counter the scientism that is currently rampant within educational research because of neoliberalism’s focus on quantification and truth (Denzin, Lincoln, & Giardina, 2006; Hyslop-Margison & Naseem, 2007; Lather, 2006). I share how I purposefully refuse to participate in the valorization of quantitative research that is continuously involved in a misguided quest for certainty (Boyles, 2005; Dewey, 1929/1960). Finally, I suggest that interdisciplinary connections must be made within the academy in order to challenge and resist neoliberalism. Using my own experiences of obtaining a women’s studies certificate and being active within both academic and activist women’s studies organizations, I assert that radical academics need to learn from women’s studies scholars because those situated within feminism have much to offer in the fight against neoliberalism, including commitments to social justice, politicization, and collaboration.