Anthropology for whom? Engaging students in the neoliberal academy
10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2460
The article analyzes students’ engagement in the neoliberal academy. It points to a paradox: while academic institutions set out to produce engaged and motivated students and instil in them a quest for knowledge, their increasingly high tuition fees are creating instead a disengaged student population whose main goal is to pay off accumulated debts.
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Jaro Stacul
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Anthropology for whom? Engaging students in the neoliberal academy
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Jaro Stacul
2016
10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2460
79
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
2239-625X
1
en
82
Anthropology for whom? Engaging students in the neoliberal academy
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                                                       2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90




                                                                                                      FORUM




Student-led demonstration, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, February 4, 2015. Overpass Light Brigade, Joe Brusky
photographer. Source: overpasslightbrigade.org/love-light-for-uw-fight-the-cuts/.



Anthropologists in/of the neoliberal academy
Edited by
Tracey HEATHERINGTON & Filippo M. ZERILLI

Contributions of
Cris SHORE & Susan WRIGHT, Vintilă MIHĂILESCU, Sarah GREEN, Gabriela VARGAS-CETINA
& Steffan Igor AYORA-DIAZ, Tracey HEATHERINGTON, Dimitris DALAKOGLOU, Noelle MOLÉ
LISTON, Susana NAROTZKY, Jaro STACUL, Meredith WELCH-DEVINE, Jon P. MITCHELL.




This work is licensed under the Creative Commons © TRACEY HEATHERINGTON, FILIPPO M. ZERILLI (EDS)
Anthropologists in/of the Neoliberal Academy
2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90.
ISSN: 2239-625X – DOI: 10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2437
TRACEY HEATHERINGTON, FILIPPO M. ZERILLI (EDS)                                                  79




Anthropology for whom? Engaging students in the neoliberal academy
Jaro STACUL
Memorial University of Newfoundland


ABSTRACT: The article analyzes students’ engagement in the neoliberal academy. It points to a para-
dox: while academic institutions set out to produce engaged and motivated students and instil in
them a quest for knowledge, their increasingly high tuition fees are creating instead a disengaged
student population whose main goal is to pay off accumulated debts.


    Most anthropologists probably share Shore and Wright’s view (2000: 57) that the
rise of technologies of audit and accountability engender «new norms of conduct and
professional behaviour» and create «new kinds of subjectivities». A lot has been writ-
ten, in Anthropology and cognate disciplines, on the rise of audit culture after the neo-
liberal turn, and I do not think my thoughts will add anything new to what is already
well known. However, I would like to contribute to the debate by asking a question: if
audit technologies set out to create self-managing individuals who render themselves
auditable, as Shore and Wright suggest, what kind of students does the auditable acade-
my produce?
    A few years ago, Gusterson (2011) shared his views on the consumer mentality and
commodity logic that have become dominant among students in Anglophone universi-
ties on both sides of the Atlantic and reminded us that our task, as academics, is not
simply the production of knowledge (in the form of publications, for example): we also
have to communicate it to an audience which includes, inter alia, undergraduate studen-
ts. At a time when a lot of pressure is put on academics to publish books and articles in
refereed journals, teaching seems the least important task. Yet not all academic institu-
tions are research-intensive, and the survival of many departments is conditional on
sufficient student enrollments. An anthropologist who has published articles in presti-
gious journals or has put forward a fascinating theory, for example, cannot expect high
enrollments if students find his/her language difficult, or if his/her expectations are hi-
gher than other colleagues. I am not denying that there are committed and hard-wor-
king students who have a different attitude towards university studies. However, it
seems clear that ensuring sufficient enrollments poses a few problems, and I will di-
scuss some of them.
    During my career as an academic I have become familiar with different academic
systems. I completed my first university degree in Italy, and subsequently moved to Bri-
tain to pursue my doctoral studies in Social Anthropology. After completion of my


                                                2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90
80                                              ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN/OF THE NEOLIBERAL ACADEMY


PhD, I was elected into temporary teaching and research positions in England and Wa-
les. I subsequently crossed the Atlantic and worked in universities in the Canadian pro-
vinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. I recently moved to Memorial University of New-
foundland, to which I am currently affiliated. Obviously different universities have dif-
ferent systems, yet while most value research, they also place increasing emphasis on
“learning” and “student success”. These are highlighted by their mission statements
(which I quote anonymously): «to provide the environment and support to ensure (the
students’) success»; «to instil in (students) a lifelong quest for knowledge and under-
standing»; «to provide students with a transformative, academically rigorous personal
learning experience»; and so forth. One way in which knowledge is instilled and a lear-
ning experience is provided is through “engagement”. Engagement may take different
forms, yet at the level of practice engaging students usually entails stimulating their in-
terest in the subjects taught and establishing a relationship between such subjects and
the “real world”. Thus, more and more universities run seminars and symposia on how
to make students more engaged. Engagement, in turn, has drawn the attention of the
private sector too: I am often contacted by publishing companies encouraging me to
adopt their newly-published textbook that has the potential to enhance students’ enga-
gement; likewise, computer companies occasionally ask me to recommend their pro-
ducts to the university’s purchase department on the grounds that their adoption will fo-
ster students’ engagement. Emphasis on engagement is hardly surprising: after all, if au-
dit technologies (like course evaluations, for example) set out to improve the quality of
teaching, improved teaching techniques will likely produce engaged and motivated stu-
dents. But how “engaged” are students in the neoliberal academy?
    One thing I have always found difficult to assess is students’ engagement itself. Until
quite recently I assumed that students’ questions on the subjects examined in class and
their participation in discussions were evidence of engagement. Moreover, because of
its focus on the “real world”, Anthropology can play a significant role in stimulating
students’ interest. In theory this is true. Yet in practice engagement becomes a problem
if students need to work as a result of the high tuition fees that many universities char-
ge. While a few years ago most students used to study and work, nowadays they work
and study. Thus, a full-time job means a very limited amount of time to be devoted to
study. This situation brings to mind what Gusterson (2011) wrote not long ago: because
losing a job is not an option, students skip the readings for a class in order to be able to
show up for work. There is little doubt that some students know how to balance work
and study, and this skill is reflected in their final grades. However, these are a minority:
most of those who have recently attended my classes, for instance, told me very hone-
stly that succeeding in exams is a matter of luck. They always hope to be tested on their
lecture notes only, and know that questions on the assigned readings are likely to result
in mediocre or low marks. Yet getting not-so-good marks is preferable to being fired.



2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90
TRACEY HEATHERINGTON, FILIPPO M. ZERILLI (EDS)                                             81


   The stress and anxiety stemming from the attempt to balance work and study are re-
vealed particularly by the e-mails some students send me the night before a test. Most
of these ask on what materials they should focus, whether it is necessary to remember
dates or definitions, and the like. Others ask whether the ethnographic video shown in
class or the article on reserve in the library may be found online. There is nothing
wrong with these questions. Yet they show that preparation for a test is usually left for
the last minute, and that very little, if anything, of what has been learned is likely to be
retained. In a recent class, I encouraged a student to contribute to discussions and sum-
marize the points she had made in her presentation a few days before, and she replied
that she could not even remember what the presentation was about. This is an extreme
case, but it is an indicator of the “disengaging” effect of high tuition fees, and reveals
that for an increasing number of students the main goal of studying is to pass a test.
   Engagement becomes even more problematic at a time when an increasing number
of students make use of mobile electronic devices with access to the Internet. Nobody
can deny that these are very useful tools: after all, a visit to the university library invol-
ves time and money to be spent on photocopies, and a little device can save both. Ho-
wever, easy access to sources can have perverse effects like, for example, excessive de-
pendency on electronic devices. Convincing students to visit the university library to
find sources for a research paper has become a challenging task, given that retrieving
academic articles from databases is deemed much easier and faster. This is not laziness,
but pure economic calculation: the time spent in a library is time taken off work, and
the more time, the longer it will take to pay off one’s debts. Gone are the days when
students used to come to my office to ask for advice as to what books they should read
during the summer. Nowadays I am more likely to hear about the summer jobs for
which they plan to apply. The “job”, in turn, is no longer the means to pay off debts: it
has become an end in itself.
   As a result of these changes, campus is becoming less important as a context of so-
cialization and exchange of ideas among students, and the increasing popularity of onli-
ne courses may have “desocializing” effects. Shortly before the winter semester came to
an end, I was asked by some students who took one of my courses for the notes of the
lectures they had not been able to attend. I drew their attention to the course descrip-
tion, and reminded them that it is their responsibility to get such notes from other stu-
dents. They, in turn, gave the same reply: that they do not know the other students.
This reply reminded me of an important thing, namely, that one of our tasks, as anthro-
pologists, is to make students familiar with cultures and societies (broadly defined). But
how can students become “engaged” and learn about something called “society” if they
cannot (or do not want to) relate to others attending the same small class? Welcome to
the neoliberal university.




                                              2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90
82                                              ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN/OF THE NEOLIBERAL ACADEMY



REFERENCES
Gusterson, Hugh, 2011, Lowering British higher education, Anthropology Today, 27, 1: 1-2.
Shore, Cris, Susan Wright, 2000, Coercive accountability: The rise of audit culture in higher
      education, in Audit cultures: Anthropological studies in accountability, ethics and the
      academy, Marilyn Strathern, ed, London, Routledge: 57-89.




2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90
