Critical Inquiry in and Against 21st-Century Authoritarian Times

This paper forwards critical inquiry as a tool for hope against authoritarian movements in American public higher education. We utilize a speculative case study approach to interrogate the present moment, with its rising tide of authoritarian fascism in the United States and its manifestations in higher education. Rather than viewing this case (and its analogue) as solvable, we orient to it as a predicament. After introducing the problem of authoritarianism in higher education and presenting a speculative case rendering of it, we shift to explore three critical theories: queer theory, futures studies, and speculative feminisms. We use each of these theories to reorient the predicament the case study presents. To read the case with these theories enacts critical anticipatory practices, offering new questions by which to teach and inquire with critical theory in our present fascistic moment. Such enactments spark hope for imagining participatory democratic futures.