Contesting Neoliberalism Through Critical Pedagogy, Intersectional Reflexivity, and Personal Narrative: Queer Tales of Academia

Abstract

In this article, we use personal narrative to explore allies and alliance building between marginalized people working in and through higher education, with an eye toward interrogating the ways in which ideologies of neoliberalism work to maintain hierarchy through the legitimation of othering. Inspired by Conquergood (1985), who calls scholars to engage in intimate conversation rather than distanced observation, we offer our embodied experiences as a way to use the personal to reflect on the cultural, social, and political. Our narratives often recount being out of place, moments of incongruence, or our marked otherness. Through the sharing of these narratives, we will demonstrate the possibility for ally building based in affective connections forged through shared queer consciousness, paying particular attention to the ways in which neoliberal ideologies, such as individualism and postracism, may advance and impede such alliances.

Keywords:

• alliance building
• feminist theory
• intersectional reflexivity
• neoliberalism
• personal narrative
• queer pedagogy

Acknowledgments

We dedicate this essay to Dr. John T. Warren, a mentor, colleague, and friend.

Notes

1. See White and Hauck's (2000) edited volume, Campus, Inc.: Corporate Power in the Ivory Tower.

2. Just a few examples of how higher education has been commercialized include: expansion of student loan programs that position students as consumers, passage of the Bayh-Dole law that allowed universities to own and profit from faculty research, discouraging unionization, enacting policies that allow for more adjunct faculty, and revising accreditation practices to approve for-profit colleges and universities (Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004, pp. 20–22).

3. See Groenke and Hatch's (2009) edited volume, Critical Pedagogy and Teacher Education in the Neoliberal Era.

4. For a detailed discussion of the differing conceptualizations, by McLaren and Anzaldúa, of borders, see Elenes (2003).