Precarious Responsibility: Teaching with Feminist Politics in the Marketized University

Abstract

: One of the most pressing characteristics of the neoliberal restructuring of academia, together with increased managerialism, performativity measures, and a “customer service” approach, is the casualization or precarization of academic work. Casualization entails a fragmentation of academic work, where academics are forced to move between workplaces on hourly-paid and fixed-term contracts, often doing their job without access to resources such as an office, training, or paid research time. While a number of feminist scholars have investigated the ways in which feminist academics negotiate the ever-increasing mechanisms of individualization, ranking, and auditing of their work, this article focuses on the precarious pedagogies of casualized feminist scholars. Recounting experiences of challenging the hierarchical hegemony of the university, and its white male Euro- and US-centric focus, the article maps attempts to affect the teaching and learning process, while highlighting the precarious but still privileged position of casualized feminist scholars in higher education. Delineating some of the difficulties of teaching with a feminist politics of responsibility in the marketized university, this article suggests possibilities for resistance.