How to Get a Life: Humanities Education in the age of Neoliberal Exhaustion

Abstract

Over the past few years, my students have increasingly claimed that they are overworked and that they don’t have a life. They are worried about their grades, their ability to find a job after graduation and repay their student loans. In this article, I grapple with this growing anxiety and stress that I have witnessed among my students. I explore the correlation between the neoliberalization of education, the ideology of human capital and student state of panic and anxiety. I argue that the neoliberal education reform has intensified overwork and exhaustion, as students have internalized the logic that they are human capital, constantly needing to compete and increase their value on the market. I further call upon the humanities to question the neoliberal work ethic and fight for a higher education whose ultimate objective is not the creation of human capital.