Ethnographic dispatches from the neoliberal academy
10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2983
This text consist of four brief ethnographic vignettes, offering personal observations and poignant recollections of the consequences of «neoliberalisation» at University College London, where I was employed for eighteen years until I took up a new position at a German university in September 2014.
application/pdf
2239-625X
2983
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Ger Duijzings
Anuac
Ethnographic dispatches from the neoliberal academy
Text.Serial.Journal
https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/anuac
6
Forum: Anthropologists Witnessing and Reshaping the Neoliberal Academy
2017-07-18
2017-06-27
2017-07-17
2017-07-18
63-67
1
Ger Duijzings
2017/07/18
10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2983
63
Universität Regensburg, Germany
2239-625X
1
en
67
Ethnographic dispatches from the neoliberal academy
https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/anuac/article/download/2983/2602
6
                                                  2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 63-67




                                                                                              FORUM




Student demonstration against fees and cuts, Aberdeen. Credits: http://anticuts.com/wp-content/uploads /
2015/07/ Aberdeen-student-left-banner.jpg


Anthropologists witnessing and reshaping the neoliberal academy
Edited by
Tracey HEATHERINGTON & Filippo M. ZERILLI

Contributions of
Virginia R. DOMINGUEZ, Sam BECK, Carl A. MAIDA, Martin A. MILLS, Berardino
PALUMBO, Alan SMART, Ger DUIJZINGS, Alexis M. JORDAN & Shaheen M. CHRISTIE,
Boone W. SHEAR, Alex KOENSLER & Cristina PAPA, THE RECLAIMING OUR UNIVERSITY
MOVEMENT.




This work is licensed under the Creative Commons © GER DUIJZINGS
Ethnographic dispatches from the neoliberal academy
2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 63-67.
ISSN: 2239-625X – DOI: 10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2983
ANTHROPOLOGISTS WITNESSING AND RESHAPING THE NEOLIBERAL ACADEMY                            63




Ethnographic dispatches from the neoliberal academy
Ger DUIJZINGS
Universität Regensburg



ABSTRACT: This text consist of four brief ethnographic vignettes, offering personal observa-
tions and poignant recollections of the consequences of «neoliberalisation» at University
College London, where I was employed for eighteen years until I took up a new position at a
German university in September 2014.


   I have written four brief observational pieces, responding in the represen-
tational mode that is core to our discipline: ethnography. For me this is the
most precise and appropriate response to Anuac’s call to present neoliberal
academia «in concrete, empirical, ideally ethnographic terms», and on the
basis of «personal observations». Hence what I am presenting here is a few
personal observations and poignant recollections of the consequences of
«neoliberalisation» (Shore, Wright 2016) in a London-based university where
I was employed for eighteen years, until I took up a new position at a German
university in 2014. These short vignettes describe real situations of which I
was part, all (but one) anonymized to protect the anonymity of the individu-
als figuring in the text. I developed this ethnographic reporting format as
part of the Nightlaboratory, a fieldwork blog which I created together with my
student Iulius-Cezar Macarie in 2012, where we have posted ethnographic
pieces no longer than two-hundred words depicting the nocturnal city (par-
ticularly London) and migrants working nightshifts (https://nightlaborato-
ry.wordpress.com/). The purpose of this blog is to offer composed yet evoca-
tive portraits of night workers and descriptions of situations we encounter
during our nocturnal fieldwork. For this Anuac Forum, I have written longer
pieces of three to four hundred words. The last one, “Zombies” is based on
fieldwork carried out as part of the Nightlaboratory, when I interviewed and
shadowed a night security guard at University College London in my last
months at UCL, before I moved to Germany. The four vignettes are dry and
matter-of-fact, and I purposefully refrain from suggesting how the situations
that I describe can be reshaped and transformed, as I believe that they speak


                                                 2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 63-67
64                                              TRACEY HEATHERINGTON, FILIPPO M. ZERILLI (EDS)


for themselves. One can glean from them what alternative futures can and
ought to be envisaged, which is what ethnography and ethnographic critique
can offer.

Fish tank (2009)
   Since the move into a prizewinning and state-of-the-art new building, the
school’s language teachers are accommodated into open plan offices, with
glass panes, not walls, separating them from the rest of the building. They
are exposed to the frequent gazes of others, such as the management on the
top floor, which looks down on the “fish tank” as its residents soon call it. Al-
though these offices are meant to be “transparent”, teachers protect their
privacy by patching language and country-related posters on the glass, as
well as putting up “quiet zone” warning notes addressed to staff and students
passing through the corridor talking loudly. In no other part of UCL – Lon-
don’s self-proclaimed “Global University” that boasts Jeremy Bentham as its
spiritual father— is the spatial setup more panoptical and self-censuring
than here. Teachers feel watched and try to avoid eye-contact with those
looking at them from a distance. «If I want to use a deodorant, I feel people
observe me, so I go to the toilet. When we congregate, I tend to think that
they [the management] think we may be plotting». The offices have no sound
isolation as the glass panels are not sealed to the floor, allowing air to pass
through a gap at the bottom into the office and from there into the air and
light well around which the offices and library are built. To control the flow
of air, the windows open automatically, so the climate is cold and drafty es-
pecially during winter. Most teachers now tend to avoid the place. They do
not socialize as they used to do before, and only use their office to hang their
coats when teaching. Neither do the academics assemble, hidden away in
small individual offices across the corridor. The language teachers’ situation
has become more precarious over the years, as the number of students taking
languages is continuously dropping. They are paid hourly rates with just a
few guaranteed hours on their temporary nine-month contracts. One floor
up, another open plan office accommodates the postdocs and visiting fel-
lows: «the unwashed» as a manager once told me quizzically. That was, of
course, a joke, but, as I come to think of it, not a very apt one for fish tank
residents.

Security alert (2010)
  Students occupy the Jeremy Bentham Room in response to cuts to higher
education and the rise in tuition fees, also demanding the full living wage for


2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 63-67
ANTHROPOLOGISTS WITNESSING AND RESHAPING THE NEOLIBERAL ACADEMY                            65


cleaning, catering and security staff. In front of the school’s premises stu-
dents gather, many of them unable to enter the building as they are stopped
by security guards who ask for IDs (which the students do not tend to have
with them). Staff is treated more leniently and allowed in. Doing their best to
look intimidating the guards seem rather confused and helpless, not ready to
challenge any staff unwilling to show an ID. An administrator sends around
an all-staff email: «Because of a college security alert, at the time of writing
(11am) the door is locking when closed, allowing access only to staff via the
ID card reader. Some students may not be able to enter the building, so this
may be the reason for some absences this morning». After entering the build-
ing (without showing my ID) I respond to that email: «Thanks for sending
this message around, it seems we are living in interesting times, barring stu-
dents from the university premises. Can I ask what this is all about? Do we
have a right to know what the security threats are? Is it the students?» One
academic backs up my query by asking why students, who don't normally
show IDs, are now being asked to do so, and yet another one writes in an
email: «we have not been informed of a genuine threat to security and can
only suspect that this is intimidation directed toward our students. This cre-
ates a hostile environment for work. I am headed home and will not return
until the “security” presence is withdrawn». Some colleagues knock on my
office door to say «well done», but without expressing their support publicly,
while the majority keeps silent. Later that day the school’s front doors are re-
opened without any further explanation. One colleague informs us at the end
of the working day: «I think you should all know, if you don’t already, that
the UCL authorities have threatened the student occupiers with legal action
if they do not vacate the Jeremy Bentham room».

Rocking the boat (2012)
   In a court room not far from Heathrow Airport, Australian citizen Trenton
Oldfield, and a dozen or so sympathizers listen to the sentence read out in
front of him by a judge. Trenton is convicted to six months’ prison for dis-
rupting the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in protest
against government cuts and a culture of elitism in the UK. On 7 April 2012,
perceiving the boat race as a symbol of upper-class privilege that deprives
the less well-to-do of educational opportunities, he jumped into the Thames,
disrupting the race for 25 minutes. Police pulled him out of the water, no-
body got hurt, he only put his own life at risk. After he served his sentence,
his application for a spousal visa is rejected, his presence in the UK being de-
clared «not conducive to the public good». After twelve years of residence,


                                                 2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 63-67
66                                              TRACEY HEATHERINGTON, FILIPPO M. ZERILLI (EDS)


married to a British citizen with a small daughter, Trenton receives a ruling
by the Home Secretary (and Oxford alumni) Theresa May that he is to be de-
ported back to Australia. He appeals against this decision, and several aca-
demics, artists and activists rally to his support. In a character reference for
the court I wrote: «Trenton’s protest gave voice to his concerns through di-
rect action, meant to energize the public debate around these issues. He did
this out of a sense of moral duty, without causing physical harm to anybody,
which elsewhere in Europe would not lead to such a draconian punishment
followed by the threat of eviction. He may have crossed a boundary, but he
has served his sentence, and he should be allowed to continue asking these
critical questions through which he makes a larger contribution to British
public life than most of us».

Zombies (2014)
   A private security guard sits at the entrance of the School’s library six
nights a week, after the university introduced 24-hour opening times during
exam term, serving its rapidly growing cohort of Chinese students many of
whom work through the night. There are no librarians present whatsoever,
security guards take care of students’ safety and well-being. Most of the
guards are on zero-hour contracts and when doing nightshifts they often
work from 4pm until 9am. «We are the left-over of society», says one security
guard whom I accompany during his nocturnal round through UCL premises,
passing through tunnels and corridors and listening to the noises of ma-
chines that operate during the night. He tells me that it is important to lis-
ten, because anything can go wrong, such as explosions, breaking in, and wa-
ter dripping. Noises are the warning signals as you can’t see much because of
the dark. The older buildings make sounds by themselves: they have «charac-
ter», as he explains. But that’s creepy when you get tired: then your mind
starts playing tricks. Many guards drop the “graveyard shift” as it is some-
times called, as «it is too spooky» at night, they hear strange noises and see
all sorts of things. They tell that there are ghosts around, as the UCL Main
Quad was built on an old cemetery. The Rockefeller Building, an old structure
across Gower Street, makes squeaky sounds and has a morgue so it scares the
shit out of them. The Cruciform Building’s name makes them think that
there must be something wrong with that building too. It also doesn’t help
that Jeremy Bentham’s Auto-Icon, a wooden cabinet with his embalmed body
and wax head, is located in one of the corridors near the Provost’s office, and
that quite a few zombie films such as The Mummy Returns (2001) were shot at


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UCL, bringing in extra revenue for the university. Because of that there is a
high turnover of night-shift security personnel. The guard with whom I talk
also tells me that he only gets a few hours of sleep as he commutes large dis-
tances and needs to be back at work on time for another 16-hour shift. He
takes pills as it is hard to get a proper rest.


REFERENCES

Shore, Cris, Susan Wright, 2016, Neoliberalisation and “The Death of Public Univer-
     sity”, in Anthropologists in/of the Neoliberal Academy, Tracey Heatherington,
     Filippo M. Zerilli, eds, Anuac, 5, 1: 46-50.




                                                 2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 63-67
