In this first section, contemporary academic discourses are located within the neoliberal landscape. The particular juncture of time, space and status of academia today is generating or reinforcing competitive and masculine approaches to researching, which I believe have made the need to rethink the way we inhabit academia even more urgent. It is important to consider this landscape, because when we write it is never in isolation, even when we do it on our own – we write against the backdrop of a specific system and its sociocultural, professional or financial implications. Within this context, I offer an overview of the main characteristics of contemporary neoliberal academia and focus on some key factors – for example, the need to perform and publish according to traditional masculine understandings of research and the overarching hegemony of masculine metrics. From this discussion will emerge why researching and writing differently can be considered and used as a tool for challenging the status quo, and why it is a particularly important project now.

Neoliberal academia

Neoliberalism can be understood as a system guided by market principles, which are then reinforced and given a legitimate space. In its interface and interlacing with academia, neoliberalism stems from a ‘form of reason that configures all aspects of existence in economic terms’ (Brown, 2015, 17). Hence, in an increasing number of countries worldwide, even higher education institutions founded on non-economic principles and focusing on education and research are now conceived of as market players serving customers through the creation and promotion of products, aiming to maximize income, and valuing ‘enterprise and investment’ (Rhodes, 2017, 25). Indeed, due to lack of governmental funding and other sociopolitical dynamics at the national and international level, many universities are today run like businesses (Tuchman, 2009). In ‘Education in the liquid-modern setting’ (2009) and ‘Educational challenges of the liquid-modern era’ (2003), Zygmunt Bauman provides an outline of ‘liquid modernity’, and explores the particular issues that it raises for education and academics. One of the key concerns in contemporary neoliberal ‘liquid academia’ is the notion of what universities, education and research are for, and whether these should be considered as an investment that students make to improve their future currency in the job market, and as products that students as customers are able to consume.