Compliance and Resistance Within Neoliberal Academia

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Setting the Scene: Research and Writing Against the Neoliberal Grain

   • Susan Gair, Tamar Hager, Omri Herzog

   Pages 1-22Open Access

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3. The Manufactured CV

   • Susan Gair, Tamar Hager, Omri Herzog

   Pages 23-50Open Access

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4. Challenging Knowledge In/Accessibility

   • Susan Gair, Tamar Hager, Omri Herzog

   Pages 51-81Open Access

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5. Tackling Difference in a Neoliberal Classroom

   • Susan Gair, Tamar Hager, Omri Herzog

   Pages 83-114Open Access

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6. Closing Thoughts: Academic Hazards and Opportunities

   • Susan Gair, Tamar Hager, Omri Herzog

   Pages 115-125Open Access

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7. Correction to: Compliance and Resistance within Neoliberal Academia

   • Susan Gair, Tamar Hager, Omri Herzog

   Pages C1-C1Open Access

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8. Back Matter

   Pages 127-134

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This open access book reflects on academic life under a neoliberal regime. Through collaborative autoethnographies, the authors share stories about the everyday experiences, dilemmas and conflicts of three academics: the struggle for promotion, teaching’s challenges, the race to publish, confronting bureaucracy and institutional politics, as well as the resulting emotional stress. These stories reveal the impact of neoliberal culture on ideological, economic, social, collegial, and emotional integrity which are integral to academics’ lives today. But along with the challenges, the authors present their vision of hope, and transformation through academic solidarity - and for the silenced voices to be heard, inside academia and beyond it.

This is an open access book.

• Academic marketplace
• Neoliberalism
• Resistance Writing
• Collective biographies
• Feminist Methodologies
• Autoethnography in higher education
• Open Access

“This book is essential reading - for all academics, and anyone else concerned about the role of higher education in building just and democratic societies.  Based on the authors' auto-ethnographic reflections, this confronting, and at times provocative book, elucidates the very real challenges, tensions and injustices of working within contemporary neoliberal universities. While neoliberal governance seeks to obliterate and invisibilise the value of academic work, the authors maintain narratives that inspire hope and courage to contest neoliberal tyranny, and ultimately provide a compelling argument about the fundamental importance of repositioning students and educators at the centre of our Universities” (Christine Morley PhD, Professor of Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Australia)

• College of Arts, James Cook University, Douglas, Australia

  Susan Gair

• Dept. of Education & Gender Studies, Tel-Hai College, Upper Galilee, Israel

  Tamar Hager

• Department of Cultural Studies, Sapir College, Sha’ar Hanegev, Israel

  Omri Herzog

Susan Gair is Associate Professor in the College of Arts at James Cook University, Australia. Her research interests include critical social work practice, child adoption policy and practice, challenging inequalities, and promoting culturally respectful practice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.


Tamar Hager is Associate Professor in the Education Department and Gender Studies Program at Tel Hai College, Israel. She has written several autoethnographies on motherhood, activism, and teaching. Her writings address feminist methodologies, neoliberal academia, multiculturalism and critical pedagogy.


Omri Herzog is Senior Lecturer in the Cultural Studies Department at Sapir College, Israel. His research interests include corporeal politics, popular cultural critique, and the dynamics of contemporary Israeli culture.

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